BAGHDAD,
March 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Some 29 Iraqis were
killed and dozens others were injured when the U.S.-led forces pounded
Baghdad and its outskirts on Wednesday, March 26.
At
least 15 bodies stretched to the ground in a capital street close to
three buildings heavily damaged by the raids, Al-Jazeera
satellite channel reported.
Fire
was set to a number of cars nearby and plumes of fire are still rising
up from them, foreign reporters in the Iraqi capital said.
Other
14 Iraqis were killed and 30 injured when two missiles landed in a
residential area in the capital, the director of civil defence in the
district, Hamad Abdallah al-Dulaimi was quoted by Agence France-Presse
(AFP) as saying.
The
missiles hit "the city of the people" in northern Baghdad at
about 11:30 am (0830 GMT), crashing into buildings occupied by car
mechanics' garages on the ground floor and private apartments above,
destroying or damaging several neighbouring shops and restaurants and a
dozen homes.
Debris
from the missiles filled two craters in the sidewalk and pools of blood
stained the district's main street.
Asked
about the strike at a press briefing at the U.S. Central Command
headquarters in Qatar, General Vincent Brooks said he did not know who
was responsible.
"I
don't know those were ours, can't say we had anything to do with
it,"
Dozen
Explosions
Earlier
in the day, other U.S.-led aerial raids targeted elite Republican Guard
strongholds blocking the advance on the capital and television stations
which rally people against the invaders.
About
a dozen explosions shook Baghdad and its suburbs as dawn broke over the
city, one of them raising a huge plume of smoke near the ministry of
information and the state television studios.
Some
of the strikes were apparently aimed at Iraqi state television in the
city and the information ministry, which controls all media in Iraq .
The
latest explosions shook the city around 5:00 am (0200 GMT), and
television pictures showed fires raging around the area near the
ministry and the nearby state television studios as the sun came up.
The
television was off for around 45 minutes on Tuesday night before
resuming transmissions until the normal night-time closedown.
The
youth channel of President Saddam Hussein's son Uday did not return to
air after the strikes. Iraq TV sources said transmitters had been hit.
Iraqi
satellite television monitored outside the country was also disrupted,
flashing incomplete images occasionally while remaining blank most of
the time.
State
television angered the United States on Monday by showing two pilots of
a downed U.S. Apache helicopter, and said they were prisoners of war.
The
day before it aired footage and brief questioning by officials of five
shaken prisoners of war, as well as at least four dead U.S. soldiers in
a makeshift morgue.
The
pictures were believed to have been calculated to strike at the pride
and prestige of U.S.-led forces.
Washington
complained the broadcasts were in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
In
Washington , the Pentagon refused to confirm whether it sought to
destroy or interfere with Iraqi television.
"We
never discuss targets," Pentagon information director Bryan Whitman
said.
"We
take extreme efforts to make sure we minimize civilian casualties as we
take out appropriate military targets that will help us achieve our
objectives," Whitman said.
E-Bomb
 |
|
Tomahawk
missile is launched from the USS Winston S. Churchill
|
He
refused to say whether an electromagnetic pulse, known as an E-bomb,
used to paralyze computer and electrical networks, would be deployed in
addition to precision guided missiles.
CBS
News reported that the U.S. Air Force had blasted Iraqi television with
the experimental electromagnetic pulse device to try and knock off its
signal.
The
intense bombardments also appeared to target the southern suburbs, where
elite Republican Guard units protect the approach to Baghdad .
AFP
correspondents heard U.S. and British warplanes roaring at high altitude
over Baghdad, but the aircraft were invisible above the dark clouds
emanating from fuel trenches ignited by the Iraqi authorities on
Saturday, apparently to block visibility during the air attacks.
A
U.S. Navy spokesman aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier said a
barrage of 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles was launched at the city and
surrounding areas from ships in the Gulf and the Red Sea.
Air
strikes have already left about 30 civilians dead and more than 400
wounded in and around Baghdad, according to Iraqi figures.
In
the biggest land battle so far of the campaign, a U.S. defense claimed
between 150 and 300 Iraqis were reported killed east of An-Najaf on
Tuesday, March 25, about 200 kilometers south of Baghdad, in the
engagement with a "dismounted force" of Iraqis.
The
official said the fight erupted after an element of the U.S. 7th Cavalry
Regiment came under rocket propelled grenade fire that disabled a tank
and damaged two other vehicles.
There
were no U.S. casualties, the official alleged, adding it was not clear
whether the force was regular Iraqi army or not.
The
U.S. account could not be independently verified, asserted AFP.
U.S.-British
troops pushing forward from the southern desert regions have had to
battle blinding sandstorms and encountered fierce Iraqi resistance on
reaching cities.
Reports
said Iraqi elite troops have mainly retrenched into Baghdad and the
northern hometown of Tikrit.
Iraqi
Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf repudiated British
allegations of a revolt in Basra as "provocative lies".
In
Basra, the correspondent of Al-Jazeera also said he had seen no
sign of a rebellion.
U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had heard reports of an uprising
but had no confirmation.
Two
British troops were killed and two severely wounded in a friendly fire
incident between two of the British army's high-tech Challenger II tanks
in fighting outside Basra, British officials said.
Twenty
British troops have now been killed in war accidents and combat. There
are about 16 American dead but several are missing and seven are
believed held prisoner.
The
battle for Baghdad appears to be nearing a critical phase, with U.S.
troops backed by Apache helicopter gunships primed for an all-out
assault on the Republican Guard.
U.S.
officers said 30 to 40 Apaches, the U.S. military's most fearsome attack
helicopter, had made initial runs against the Iraqi crack troops.
The
U.S. Third Infantry Division was closest to Baghdad , positioned near
Kerbala, about 100km from the capital, field reports said, with the U.S.
101st Airborne Division crawling up from the southwest and the Marines
to the east.
But
their advance through the desert was slowed by the strong winds and
swirling sand.
‘Good
Progress’
A
U.S. Apache and a Black Hawk helicopter attached to the Third Infantry
Division went missing in southern Iraq when visibility was cut to 100
meters (yards), said a senior U.S. officer.
40
Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched at Baghdad and surrounding areas
from ships in the Gulf and the Red Sea.
U.S.
President George W. Bush claimed his forces were "making good
progress" but U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned the war
was "much closer to the beginning than the end."
"Our
coalition is on a steady advance. We're making good progress," Bush
said in a speech at the Pentagon in which he asked Congress for 74.7
billion dollars (70.13 billion euros) to cover the costs of the war.
General
Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also insisted
that "the toughest fight is ahead of us" and the resistance
will get stronger as troops approach Baghdad.
British
Prime Minister Tony Blair announced meanwhile that he would go to
Washington for talks with Bush on Wednesday.
