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cronos_qc
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Québec City
Nov 2002
time: 00:26
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Here some real news.
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Sur la route de Bagdad, les troupes coalisées auraient contourné Nassiriah et pris un pont sur l'Euphrate. Dans le sud, elles se contenteraient de sécuriser les infrastructures pétrolières de Bassorah sans pénétrer dans la ville. Au sud-ouest, le port d'Oum-Qasr serait presque aux mains des Américains et des Anglais, mais une poche de résistance subsisterait dans l'ancien port. A l'ouest, un aérodrome au moins serait sous contrôle de la coalition.
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On the road of Baghdad, the troops united would have circumvented Nassiriah and taken a bridge on Euphrate. In the south, they would be satisfied to make safe the oil infrastructures of Bassorah without penetrating in the city. In south-west, the port of Oum-Qasr would be almost with the hands of the Americans and the English, but a pocket of resistance would remain in the old port. In the west, an aerodrome at least would be under control of the coalition.
www.tf1.fr/news
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A U.S. officer said earlier that Marines defeated Iraqi forces in a battle on the outskirts of Basra on Saturday, taking many prisoners, but it was not clear who controlled the city.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....storyID=2430062
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:26
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quote:
RUSSIAN EXPERT: LAST MISSILE AND BOMB ATTACK AGAINST BAGHDAD WAS THE MOST INTENSIVE EVER IN HUMAN WARS
MOSCOW, 22 March. /RIA Novosti corr./ - Marshal of aviation Yevgeny Shaposhnikov stated to RIA Novosti that the last missile and bomb attack against Baghdad, by the number of charges delivered during a certain time, was "the most intensive in the history of human wars." In particular, the Marshal pointed out that such intensity surpassed strikes of allied aviation at German cities during the Second World War, including the strike at Dresden." Shaposhnikov is convinced that "in terms of military goals, such strikes are absolutely useless and to no avail."
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http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?pr...3-22&do_alert=0
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Shi Huangdi
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Pittsburgh, PA
Apr 1999
time: 00:26
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Guardian(Left-wing British newspaper): US Special Forces enter Baghdad, US regular army fighting at Najaf 100 miles south of Baghdad, other news
http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/stor...,920286,00.html
quote:
Special forces in Baghdad as Saddam's armies reel
· Iraqi troops pull back for final showdown · Thousands surrender in battle for Basra · US forces advance to within 100 miles of capital
Ed Vulliamy, Washington, Kamal Ahmed, London, Paul Harris and James Meek in Basra and Rory McCarthy in Qatar
Sunday March 23, 2003
The Observer
American special forces were reported to be in Baghdad as thousands of elite troops still loyal to Saddam Hussein prepared for a final bloody showdown in the Iraqi capital.
The prospect of coalition forces fighting street by street for control of the city emerged after thousands of Saddam's troops withdrew to the city following a day of sweeping advances by US and British soldiers pushing north from Kuwait.
US forces advancing towards Baghdad up the Euphrates river were reported early today to be fighting Iraqi troops near the holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Iraqi TV said the local leader of Saddam's Baath party had been killed. The northern city of Mosul also came under attack from the air.
US forces said they had defeated Iraqi troops on the outskirts of Basra, were in control of the strategic port of Umm Qasr, and had captured the town of Nasiriyah. Thirteen soldiers were wounded in a grenade 'terrorist attack' on a military base camp in northern Kuwait.
Speculation that Saddam had been killed or injured in the opening stages of the war continued in spite of Iraqi television footage purporting to show him meeting senior advisers yesterday.
Several explosions shook Baghdad early today in the latest wave of bombing, including a huge blast that shook the ground in the centre of the city. The capital has been hit by wave after wave of bombing since Thursday.
Earlier American Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks said the US military had entered the capital, and Pentagon sources told The Observer that intelligence paramilitary forces were also inside the city.
The sources said the role of the special forces was to 'help locate targets and monitor defence preparations'. However, they refused to comment on whether the infiltrators planned assassinations or direct engagement with the Iraqi forces.
The infiltration dovetails with US concerns that Saddam is preparing what they call the 'Stalingrad Factor' to defend the capital, seeking to establish an iron ring of defences, possibly involving the deployment of chemical and biological weapons.
The sources said the paramilitary forces were from the CIA, and 'may be' involved in talks between the US, represented by Iraqi dissidents and Kurdish leaders, and Saddam's Republican Guard.
US State Department sources said contacts had 'intensified' in the past 24 hours 'with regard to mass surrenders and surrenders higher up the chain of command'.
As well as the Special Republican Guard, armed personnel from the Special Security Organisation and the Fedayin-Saddam intelligence group were expected to be involved in fighting.
The news that coalition forces had entered Baghdad came after thousands of Iraqi soldiers surrendered yesterday to British and US troops. Six American soldiers died in the fighting, while seven British soldiers were killed after their helicopters crashed.
Coalition forces are expecting the surrender of tens of thousands more Iraqi troops in the next few days as Saddam's regime rapidly crumbles under the allied bombardment. With prisoner-of-war camps being built to house up to 200,000 men, Ministry of Defence officials said the 'lead scenario' now was that Saddam's special forces would retreat to one of his palace complexes in Baghdad for a last-ditch battle. However, President George Bush last night cautioned against over-optimism, saying: 'A campaign on harsh terrain in a vast country could be longer and more difficult than some predicted.'
In a defiant response to the repeated bombing raids, Iraq's Information Minister said the attacks were the work of an 'international gang of criminal bastards' who had killed three civilians in Baghdad and wounded 250.
Following new air strikes throughout Iraq, an 8,000-strong division of Saddam's military gave up their weapons near Basra, the second city, amid increasingly bullish predictions by British sources that Saddam was dead or so badly wounded he was no longer in control of his army.
'We are on our time line,' said General Tommy Franks, the leader of American forces. Coalition forces were attacking the enemy 'on our terms', using a flexible mix of special forces, ground and air power.
Franks added: 'This will be a campaign unlike any other in history. It will be characterised by shock, by surprise, by flexibility, by the employment of precise munitions on a scale never before seen and by the application of overwhelming force.'
Earlier, Iraqi civilians lined the streets and cheered American and British forces moving up from the south. Journalists with British troops near Basra reported that thousands of Iraqi troops had abandoned their positions, leaving vehicles and weaponry behind.
The bulk of the prisoners came from the Iraqi 51st Infantry Division, which surrendered en masse to allied forces yesterday. The division was estimated to have 8,000 troops and 200 tanks.
According to US officials, allied forces took thousands of other prisoners in the first two days of ground operations, with many of the Iraqi troops giving up without a fight.
An official at US Central Command in Doha, Qatar, said an estimated 20 per cent of the Republican Guard, Iraq's best-armed and best-trained troops who are considered most loyal to Saddam, either have defected or plan to defect in the coming days.
Many of the surrendering conscripts were being returned to their barracks and warned not to fight for the duration of the war. Detainees deemed to be a potential threat were being taken to central holding locations in Iraq or neighbouring Kuwait.
Despite the numbers giving up, US and British forces encountered stiff resistance taking the airport at Basra and a bridge, while Saddam's security forces resisted with artillery and heavy machine guns.
Groups of Iraqi soldiers came out to surrender on the road while others held out against the US and British convoy grinding past blazing oil pipelines and barracks.
Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said Saddam's regime was crumbling under the pressure of a huge air assault. 'As last night's dramatic television coverage showed, the lights stayed on in Baghdad, but the instruments of tyranny are collapsing.'
The roadside was dotted with Iraqi tanks blackened by direct hits on their bunkers. White flags flew over some deserted, dilapidated barracks.
In an attempt to put a quick end to the war, the US has been negotiating with Iraqi military commanders using third-country intelligence connections, Iraqi defectors and even straightforward telephone appeals from American officers, according to US and Iraqi opposition officials.
The aim is to persuade the Iraqi military to stage a coup against Saddam or surrender en masse. 'We're trying to get the message across that it's time to give up,' said a State Department official. Across the southern portion of the country, Iraqi army regulars were surrendering to anyone they could find in a military uniform; some even tried to surrender to reporters.
US intelligence officials said there was now a high volume of back-channel communications with officials inside Iraq. American military officers were trying, often by telephone, to coax their Iraqi counterparts into surrendering. |
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23-03-2003 09:22
I though your sources claimed it fallen yesterday.
Ming is comming... and he brings a ban-machine 
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