US Troops Assault Baghdad from Two Fronts, 'Chemical Ali' Reported Dead

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 07, 2003

US Troops Assault Baghdad from Two Fronts, 'Chemical Ali' Reported Dead

US forces plunged into the heart of Baghdad, targeting three palaces and other totems of President Saddam Hussein's regime, while one of his top aides was reported to have been killed in an air raid.

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US forces plunged into the heart of Baghdad, targeting three palaces and other totems of President Saddam Hussein's regime, while one of his top aides was reported to have been killed in an air raid.

Baghdad echoed with the deafening sound of explosions and the rattle of small-arms fire and its skyline was smeared with thick smoke as US tanks, armoured personnel carriers and infantry launched a two-pronged thrust, US officers said.

But they described it as a tactical raid, not the start of the much-expected Battle of Baghdad to crush the Iraqi regime.

From the west, three battalions of the US 3rd Infantry Division, comprising more than 100 tanks and fighting vehicles, pushed like lightning towards the western bank of the Tigris river, they said.

They captured Saddam's main official residence in the heart of Baghdad, as well another palace in the city center and a third near the airport, said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Bayer, the 3rd Infantry Division's operations officer.

"First Brigade attacked out of the airport this morning and has seized the presidential palace" nearby, Bayer said.

"There are two palaces (in the city center), we own both of them," he said.

From the east, US marines entered Baghdad undeterred by the blowing up of two bridges on the Diyala River, which runs east of the Iraqi capital.

"We're in Baghdad and we're in Baghdad to say," said Brigadier General John Kelly, assistant commander of the First Marine Division.

But the US military denied that this operation was the final drive to crush Saddam's regime.

The US Central Command in Qatar described it as a "raid through the city."

"What this is is a powerful message that we can go where we want, when we want," Department of Defence spokesman Major Ben Owens said at the Pentagon.

"We are not at this point going to say that this is the start of the Battle of Baghdad."

AFP reporters said there was a heavy exchange of mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire at the main presidential palace, where two armoured vehicles and 10 marines in combat gear were seen.

An arms depot had caught fire and thick white smoke covered the area, while fuel trenches inside the compound were set ablaze, belching out layers of black smoke.

The administrative district around the palace, including the ministries of information and foreign affairs, were still in Iraqi hands at 10:15 am (0615 GMT), they said.

The Iraqi government insisted it was repelling the invaders.

Smiling and defiant, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf held an impromptu press conference to urge the world "not to believe" US claims.

"Don't believe these invaders and these liars," he said. "They are none of their troops in Baghdad."

He added: "We killed them, we made them drink poison and taught them a lesson that history will never forget.

In the south of the country, the US-British coalition also struck blows against symbols of Saddam's beleaguered regime.

Royal Marine Commandos seized his huge presidential complex in the southern city of Basra, a reporter with the troops said.

And a British military spokesman said Ali Hasan al-Majid, the Iraqi official better known as 'Chemical Ali', had apparently been killed in a coalition air strike.

"The messages I'm hearing are that indeed they have found his body," Group Captain Al Lockwood told CNN.

Lockwood said, though, he had not yet confirmed Ali's death through the military chain of command and other British officials told AFP they too were unable to provide confirmation.

Ali, a cousin of Saddam, won his grisly nickname for ordering gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

Many Iraqis gave a rousing welcome to US marines as they closed on the last 80 kilometers (50 miles) of their drive towards Baghdad, and there were similar scenes of jubilation in Basra, whose centre was taken by British troops on Sunday after meeting tough resistance from Saddam loyalists.

Hundreds of men yelled "kill Saddam", as they sliced their thumbs across their throats in a universally recognized gesture, a reporter with the Marines said.

They called out "I love you, I love" and handed out blue boxes of Iraqi cigarettes, and women and girls in veils flashed shy smiles.

US and British forces in southern Iraq are being bolstered by Iraqi opposition fighters, who were being flown in by the Pentagon.

The combattants "are Iraqi citizens who want to fight for a free Iraq, who will become basically the core of the new Iraqi army once Iraq is free," General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday.

As their forces assaulted the heart of Saddam's regime, Britain and the United States pressed ahead with talks to determine Iraq's future.

President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair were to meet in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for their third discussion in as many weeks.

They will also discuss the Middle East and the peace process in Northern Ireland, their aides said.

Bush and Blair differ on giving the United Nations a post-war role in running Iraq.

Washington appears to have decided to sideline the UN as much as possible from the process. Its preference is for appointing a provisional military administrator until an interim administration trusted by the Iraqis can be established.

But Britain, like France and Germany, wants the United Nations to play a central role.

Doing so would give the operation international legitimacy and help repair some of the damage to multilateralism after the two allies unleashed the war without explicit vote from the UN Security Council.

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Sunday the US military may have to run Iraq for more than six months before it hands over to an Iraqi authority.

In other developments, Bush's national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, met in Moscow on Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov for talks on US-Russian relations, Interfax news agency reported.

Their meeting came a day after five Russian diplomats were wounded when a convoy evacuating them from Baghdad came under fire, prompting angry recriminations from Moscow.

Source: agencies

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