US forces within 50 km. of Baghdad

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SOUTH OF BAGHDAD – The much awaited ground offensive toward Baghdad began at 2 a.m. Wednesday. By sundown, the US forces had decimated the Republican Guard

 

Medina Division's 14th Brigade and moved within 50 kilometers of the Iraqi

 

capital and into the 'red zone' defensive cordon, US military officials

 

said.

US forces from the 3rd Infantry Division were stationed on both sides of the

 

Euphrates River on the southern outskirts of Baghdad. The 3rd Infantry

 

Division's 1st Brigade moved across the Karbala Gap – a narrow 1.4-km.

 

strait of the Shi'ite city of Karbala – during the first nine hours of the

 

offensive.

'What we're seeing is a multipronged approach. The noose is quickly

 

tightening around the neck of this regime,' said Lt. Mark Kitchens, a

 

spokesman at US Central Command in Qatar.

Troops with the 1st US Marine Expeditionary Force moved north after seizing

 

the strategic town of Kut and an important Tigris River bridge. Marines

 

earlier routed the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard that was

 

guarding the highway to the Iraqi capital, US officials said. There were no

 

reports of US casualties.

'The Baghdad Division no longer exists and the 1st Marine Expeditionary

 

Force is moving on,' said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, at US Central Command.

Crossing the Karbala Gap, however, was one of the major challenges for US

 

forces.

 

 

The fear was that Iraqi forces would attack US troops with chemical

 

weapons from Karbala, as there are no populated areas in the gap and, once

 

committed, there is no easy means of retreat. Due to fear of chemical

 

attacks, Iraqi artillery pieces along the gap were attacked with rockets, an

 

artillery battery, and air force jets for several days before the ground

 

offensive.

 

Two hours before the offensive began, US forces were instructed to don their

 

protective rubber boots to prevent exposure to chemical agents in the event

 

of an attack.

 

 

Additionally, the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade moved to

 

a staging area south of Hilweh, due east of Karbala, early in the week as a

 

diversionary move to distract Iraqi forces from the 1st Brigade as it moved

 

west of Karbala.

 

By Tuesday afternoon, military intelligence concluded that Iraqi artillery

 

capabilities around Karbala were sufficiently disabled to allow for the

 

start of offensive operations.

 

The 2-7 Mechanized Infantry Battalion moved through the night to reach close

 

to Karbala's western edge, destroying Iraqi artillery and anti-aircraft guns

 

along the way, as two other 1st Brigade battalions moved farther west. By

 

the end of the night, two-thirds of the 3rd Infantry Division forces had

 

successfully moved north past Karbala and toward Baghdad.

 

During the Karbala Gap advance, US forces killed some 50 Iraqis and took

 

approximately 100 prisoners. The 2-7 Battalion was relieved by the 3rd

 

Brigade's 1-30 Battalion at 11:00 a.m. Thursday.

 

The 3-7 and the 3-69 Battalions of the 1st Brigade continued on to the north

 

and east some 20 km. south of Baghdad as the 2-7 Battalion moved east and

 

destroyed the 14th Brigade of the Republican Guard's Medina division around

 

the town of Mussaib.

 

During three hours of heavy fighting around the town, combined US ground and

 

air attacks killed some 500 Republican Guard forces, destroyed scores of

 

artillery batteries, RPGs, anti-aircraft guns and 40 tanks.

 

In addition, throughout the afternoon and evening, scores of Iraqi prisoners were taken. From their initial interrogations, it was discovered that Saddam's Republican Guard forces are in disarray. Ad hoc units have been patched together around Mussaib from the Medina, Hammurabi, Adnan, and Nebuchadnezer Divisions.

 

In the meantime, no casualties were reported among the US forces.

'We were able to use feints and multidirectional assaults to confuse the

 

enemy and force Saddam to divide his forces. As a result, resistance was

 

uncoordinated and ineffective,' said Maj. Rod Coffey, operations officer for

 

the 2-7 Battalion.

 

Despite oppressively hot and humid weather on Wednesday, the US forces

 

fought without interruption for 18 hours.

 

According to Iraqi prisoners taken along the Karbala Gap, Republican Guard

 

officers were holding militia and regular army forces at gunpoint to prevent

 

desertion. 'They waited for us to fire the first shot before surrendering,'

 

said 2-7 Battalion fire support officer Capt. Jason Happe.

 

Arms caches uncovered in the malarial marshlands around Mussaib included RPG

 

launchers, AK-47 rifles, grenades, and handguns.

 

'Some of the prisoners taken here are Republican Guard officers – we can

 

tell from their uniforms and general cleanliness,' said a dusty, glassy-eyed

 

1st Sgt. Benjamin Moore.

 

'What we have done today is what we do best – offensive operations,' said

 

2-7 Battalion commander Lt.- Col. Scott Rutter. 'Here we call the

 

initiative. We are most vulnerable when we are defending.

 

'When we stand in one place, we open ourselves up to RPGs, artillery

 

attacks, and terrorism. But when we move, with the integrated land-air

 

capabilities we bring to bear, it is impossible to stop us,' Rutter said.

 

 

With reporting from Associated Press

 

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post

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