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| Iraq |
| U.S., British Take Basra Airport, Bridge |
| 2003-03-22 |
| U.S. and British forces moved in on Iraq's second-largest city Saturday, taking its airport and a bridge while Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's security forces resisted with artillery and heavy machine guns. U.S. forces captured the airport on the north side of Basra after encountering resistance from Iraqi troops in armored personnel carriers, said Marine Lt. Eric Gentrup. "There was a decent amount of resistance," Gentrup said. Seeking to avoid bloody urban warfare the troops faced in capturing Umm-Qasr, U.S. and British forces will not immediately storm Basra, British military spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Vernon said. At Umm-Qasr, troops are facing street-to-street fighting against soldiers wearing civilian clothes and using guerrilla tactics, Vernon said. "Military commanders do not engage in urban areas unless they have to," Vernon told a news briefing. "It was necessary in Qasr because of the port." A battle for Basra would have no strategic objective, Vernon said. Commanders do not want to take risks as they press onward with their key mission, toppling Saddam, he said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army's V Corps took Nassiriyah, northwest of Basra, said U.S. Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a spokesman for Central Command. At Nassiriyah, the commander and deputy commander of Iraq's 51st Infantry were among those who surrendered Friday night, becoming the highest-ranking Iraqi officials to give up, Thorp said. I may be wrong — and I often am — but it seems we're spending entirely too much time "sending messages" instead of running a tightly integrated combined arms operation that destroys the enemy that destroys the enemy with air, followed by artillery, followed by tanks, followed by bored infantrymen picking up the survivors. We're trying to fight on the Iraqis' terms, and that's going to cause casualties. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 The war is being fought on political as much as military terms, and the political dictates that 1) we don't blow any Iraqi military units without first givin them a chance to surrender and 2) we avoid civilian casualties at almost any cost. I understand the political terms, even though I'm not happy about it. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-03-22 12:09:36 |