Gość: irak-truth
IP: *.broadcom.com
02.04.03, 21:37
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar — American forces, which
crossed the Tigris River in the drive toward the Iraqi
capital, destroyed the Baghdad Division of Iraq's
Republican Guard, the U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.
U.S. forces had entered what U.S. commanders call a
"red zone" near Baghdad, and Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks
warned that it might be an area where the Iraqis would
consider using chemical or other weapons of mass
destruction.
"There may be a trigger line where the regime deems
(there is a) sufficient threat to use weapons of mass
destruction," he said. "It's a conceptual line across
which there may be a decision made by regime leaders."
He said U.S. forces seized the strategic town of Kut
and routed the Republican Guard division force that had
been guarding the highway leading to Baghdad.
"The Baghdad Division has been destroyed," Brooks said.
An Iraqi military statement read on Iraqi satellite
television denied that the division was destroyed,
saying it remained ready to fight.
Brooks said that two other Republican Guard divisions
had been engaged around the city of Karbala and that
coalition forces had seized control of a dam on Lake
al-Milh. Some analysts had feared the Iraqis would try
to destroy the dam and trap U.S. forces with the
resulting flood.
"They're in serious trouble, and they remain in contact
now with the most powerful force on Earth," Brooks
said, referring to the other Republican Guard units.
Brooks showed video of U.S. troops carrying wounded
Pfc. Jessica Lynch on a stretcher from a helicopter to
a plane after she was rescued in a daring raid at a
hospital in the south-central Iraqi town of Nasiriyah.
She had been held as a prisoner of war since her unit
was attacked by Iraqis on March 23.
The grainy, green-tinted video taken with night-vision
lenses showed her to be alert as she lay on the
stretcher. A still photograph of her showed a folded
American flag resting on her as she smiled and looked
at the camera.
"Some brave souls put their lives on the line to carry
this out," Brooks said.
Brooks said that 11 bodies were recovered in the
nighttime raid. Two were found in the morgue of the
hospital and a captured Iraqi led U.S. troops to the
bodies of nine other people who were buried in the town
outside the hospital, he said.
U.S. forensics experts were trying to identify the remains.
The rescue force fought its way into and out of the
hospital with Iraqis firing on them from nearby
buildings, he said. She was held by paramilitary troops
who dress in civilian clothes.
Troops found munitions, mortars, maps and a terrain
model in the hospital, indicating it was used as a
military command center.
Participating in the raid were Army Rangers, Navy
SEALS, Air Force pilots and U.S. Marines, he said.
In Najaf, about 50 miles south of Karbala, the Central
Command said U.S. forces were being fired on from the
Ali Mosque, one of the most important Shiite Muslim sites.
U.S. commanders are trying to prevent damage to
religious sites to avoid angering Muslims in Iraq and
abroad.
He said coalition forces "were disciplined ... and
chose not to return fire against this mosque to keep it
protected."
Brooks described the takeover of the mosque by Iraqi
troops as "a detestable example of putting historical
sites in danger."
Video was shown of Iraqi troops positioning two tanks
on transporters next to another mosque. Brooks said a
third truck carried a container that exploded, but that
there were no U.S. warplanes or other weapons in the
area that could have caused the blast.
