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U.S. Army helicopter crew from the 101st Airborne Division prepares an Apache attack helicopter
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KARBALA, Iraq March 29
(IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A U.S. air strike on a crack
unit of Iraq's elite Republican Guards killed at least 55 soldiers and
destroyed 25 vehicles near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala,
U.S. military officials said Saturday, March 29.
Two battalions of Apache
helicopters from the 101st Airborne's Aviation Brigade struck 40
targets of the Republican Guards' Medina Division during the attack
late Friday, March 28, Major Hugh Cate told Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
"We completely destroyed 25
vehicles -- tanks, armoured personnel carriers and trucks," Cate,
the 101st's public affairs officer, claimed, adding that 55 Iraqi
soldiers were killed.
The U.S. occupation troops have
recently stepped up the pressure on the Republican Guard units
defending the approaches to Baghdad, sending the 101st Airborne
Division and their Apache attack helicopters into action for the first
time.
The armored Medina Division of
the Republican Guards was reported lying in wait around Karbala,
guarding the western approaches to Baghdad with an arsenal said to
include more than 200 Russian T-72 tanks.
Baath Party Main Target In Basra
In another development, a British
military spokesman said Saturday the British troops besieging Basra
are now targeting Iraq's ruling Baath party but are in "no
rush" to enter the country's second city.
"The targeting and
eradication of the Baath party within Basra province is now our
primary focus and military main effort," Colonel Chris Vernon
told reporters in Kuwait City.
Vernon claimed a senior unnamed
Baath official was now in British custody and was being questioned,
while the party's headquarters in Basra and the nearby town of Az-
Zubair "no longer exist".
He said the radio and television
stations in Basra were no longer operating, noting that Baath party
members were now communicating by telephone and the British were now
considering targeting the phone system.
But Vernon also said there was
"no rush" for the British to take full control of the city.
"It's a military operation.
We will do it on our terms and on our conditions," he said.
