United States and allied forces are being met with stiff
resistance on their way toward Baghdad and President Bush is
warning of the possibility of extended conflict in Iraq, but not
all news is grim: the first sizable relief convoy rolled into Iraq
Wednesday, despite sandstorms and continued fighting.
Three days after President Bush promised "massive amounts" of
humanitarian aid, seven tractor-trailers entered Umm Qasr carrying
food and water donated by Kuwaitis. The convoy was escorted by U.S.
soldiers.
Allied forces struggled to clear the way for more aid shipments,
using dolphins to remove mines from waterways and trying to subdue
Iraqi fighters in the city of Basra. Sandstorms prevented more aid
from being delivered.
Hundreds of cases of water were stacked on three of the semis.
The rest carried boxes of tuna, crackers, sweets and other
food.
After days of fierce fighting that shut down the city of Umm
Qasr, Iraqi youths cheered and swarmed British troops as they
handed out yellow meal packets and bottles of water Wednesday. The
troops, already in the city, were not part of the aid convoy.
Plans to bring supplies to Iraqi civilians had been on hold for
days because of fighting across southern Iraq.
While supplies were being delivered in southern Iraq, the stage
was being set for bitter fighting closer to Baghdad.
A large contingent of Iraq’s elite Republican Guard headed south
in a 1,000-vehicle convoy Wednesday toward U.S. Marines in central
Iraq ““ an area that has already seen the heaviest fighting of
the war.
Word of the Republican Guard advance came as U.S. units in
central Iraq appeared to be shifting their strategy because of the
attacks from Iraqi militiamen. Instead of racing to Baghdad, some
units were moving slower to clear out pockets of opposition.
"We’re going into a hunting mode right now," said Lt. Col. B.T.
McCoy of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. "We’re going to start hunting
down instead of letting them take the cheap shots."
Cobra pilots resupplying Marines in central Iraq cited military
intelligence reports that 3,000 Republican Guard troops were moving
from Baghdad to the city of Kut, and 2,000 more were seen south of
Kut.
The Iraqis, meanwhile, issued their first report of battlefield
action by the Republican Guards. A military spokesman said a Guard
special forces unit attacked coalition troops in south-central
Iraq, destroying six armored vehicles and inflicting an unspecified
number of casualties. There was no allied confirmation of such an
attack.
Together, the reports appeared to signal that the Republican
Guard, Saddam Hussein’s best trained and most loyal force, was
still prepared to take the offensive despite days of allied air
strikes and missile attacks on its positions.
President Bush, meanwhile, was set early Wednesday to warn the
public that war could be long and difficult.
Bush was aiming to rally U.S. forces encountering tougher
resistance in Iraq and warn Americans anew of a potentially long
conflict when he was to visit the headquarters of Central Command
on Wednesday.
The president was getting a pair of briefings from top Central
Command officials and having lunch with troops. At the Tampa, Fla.,
facility, he also was to give a speech reminding military personnel
that the United States leads a large coalition in the war to unseat
Saddam Hussein, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
As the fight for control of Baghdad nears, "this could be long
and hard, but that there is no doubt about success," Fleischer
said.
The message comes at a time when U.S. and British forces have
begun to suffer battle casualties. Nine Marines were killed Sunday
in an ambush, and Army helicopters encountered fierce resistance
during an attack Monday on Republican Guard units protecting the
approaches to Baghdad. One helicopter went down and its two-man
crew was captured
The turn of events in Iraq was reflected in a new poll by the
Pew Research Center that showed just 38 percent of the public said
the conflict was going well on Monday, down from 71 percent on
Friday.
In other developments:
– Iraqi officials said the U.S. missile attack in Baghdad killed
14 and injured 30 in the Al-Shaab neighborhood, an area crowded
with apartments, auto repair shops and inexpensive restaurants.
Television News footage showed a large crater in the middle of a
street, a child with a head bandage, and bodies wrapped in plastic
sheeting in a pickup truck. Hundreds of people stood in front of a
damaged building, some shaking fists in the air and shouting.
– Allies attacked the state-run television headquarters in
Baghdad before dawn Wednesday with missiles and air strikes, hoping
to cripple the Iraqi government’s communications. The station’s
international satellite signal was knocked off the air for a few
hours; broadcasts were intermittent after daybreak.
– A U.S. general said Wednesday the discovery of 3,000 chemical
suits in a hospital in central Iraq that had been used as an Iraqi
base raised concern that Saddam Hussein’s regime was prepared to
use chemical weapons. "What we found at the hospital reinforces our
concern," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks. "We are well prepared to
deal with the potential use of chemical weapons."
With reports from the Associated Press