On
the ground, the U.S.-led occupation forces pushed up through Iraq
heading for Baghdad, entering two major southern towns, as Washington
warned the invasion operation could last longer than planned.
After
a night of blistering attacks on Baghdad which Iraq said left three dead
and 207 injured, U.S. commander General Tommy Franks said forces were
making major progress but had no plans to attack Basra, Iraq's second
city and a major southern port, after taking thousands prisoner,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Our
intent is not to move through and create a military confrontation in
that city," he said, amid a sustained ground offensive accompanying
a major escalation of the air campaign in the three-day-old war to
invade and occupy Iraq.
President
George W. Bush admitted in his weekly radio address the war could last
longer than expected, amid reports that four U.S. troops had been killed
in action in southern Iraq, raising total losses to 25.
"A
campaign on harsh terrain in a vast country could be longer and more
difficult than some have predicted," Bush said, vowing: "This
will not be a campaign of half-measures."
Baghdad
was earlier hit by a fresh wave of air strikes, as Franks said U.S.-led
forces had operations under way "in and around" Baghdad.
Franks
and Brigadier General Vince Brooks gave an upbeat assessment of the
campaign, saying troops were making good progress through the desert.
"The
attack continues as we speak and has already moved the distance of the
longest maneuver of the 1991 Gulf war in a quarter of the time,"
Brooks said.
The
forces had taken thousands of Iraqi prisoners, they added, and had
advanced and taken the strategic town of Nasiriyah, allowing them access
across the River Euphrates and the road towards Baghdad.
However,
U.S. Marines were locked in fighting in the southern port of Umm Qasr,
despite earlier reports that the town had fallen, a Marines officer
said.
"The
city is under control, but there are various organized groups offering
resistance on the outskirts," Lieutenant Colonel Steve Holmes said.
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An
Iraqi civilian, victim of Bush’s notion of democracy and
liberation
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The
ground assault followed the launch of the U.S. "shock and awe"
campaign to occupy Iraq late Friday, which saw hundreds of bombs and
missiles dropped on Baghdad and other key cities.
In
the first daylight air strikes since the war began at dawn Thursday,
military facilities on three sides of Baghdad came under heavy
bombardment.
Tens
of thousands of U.S. and British troops who poured into Iraq from Kuwait
were moving through the desert with the aim of invading and occupying
Iraq, under the umbrella of ridding Iraq of alleged weapons of mass
destruction.
However,
the Anglo-American forces continued to be plagued by helicopter
accidents, as two British choppers collided over the Gulf, killing all
seven crewmen aboard and bringing to 19 the death toll from such
accidents in two days.
Washington
had previously said that it would install a military administration, at
least temporarily, after invading Iraq.
The
United Nations said in a report that an estimated 300,000 to 450,000
people had fled their homes in northern Iraq, although officials in
neighboring Turkey and Jordan said there had been no major flight of
refugees.
