SOUTHERN IRAQ (REUTERS) — U.S. invasion forces faced tough resistance as they opened an assault on Republican Guards defending the approaches to Baghdad, while the humanitarian situation worsened in southern Iraq.
The Pentagon said Monday U.S. forces had advanced more than 200 miles into Iraq and were beginning to confront an elite division of the Republican Guards deployed to defend the capital.
But a helicopter assault on the Iraqi force ran into strong fire. The U.S. military acknowledged losing one helicopter. Iraqi television later showed two men it said were the crew of the downed Apache helicopter.
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations for the U.S. military’s Joint Staff, said the invasion was going according to plan and some casualties were inevitable.
“Coalition forces have engaged Republican Guard Medina division troops with attack helicopters,” he said.
“It is one of the best of the Republican Guard divisions, one of the most powerful of the Republican Guard divisions. I am sure that it has been degraded significantly in the last 48 hours or so. But it is a linchpin to the consistency of the Republican Guard defense,” he said.
In the capital, Baghdad, Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told a news conference the Iraqi leadership was in good shape despite five days of heavy bombing.
He said President Saddam Hussein, shown twice on Iraqi television Monday, was “in full control of the army and the country” and that his enemies had underestimated his popularity.
Humanitarian problems
Warnings intensified of a humanitarian crisis as fighting in the South delayed entry of much-needed aid, and water grew short in Iraq’s second city, Basra.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent action to make sure there was enough water in Basra, a city of some two million people. Arab nations asked for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, but it was not clear if or when it would take place.
The United States has promised to begin delivering aid within a few days, as soon as it secures necessary ports and supply routes and takes control of population centers that were bypassed by invasion forces.
President Bush asked Congress for $75 billion in emergency funding to pay for the military campaign in Iraq and to reward key allies, including $3.5 billion as a down payment on Iraq’s reconstruction and for humanitarian relief.
U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the overall war commander, said his forces were intentionally skirting enemy formations in their advance on Baghdad.
“Progress toward our objectives has been rapid and, in some cases, dramatic,” Franks said, despite 24 hours of setbacks that included the killing and capture of U.S. soldiers and the loss of the helicopter.
The United States, backed by Britain, launched the war to oust Saddam and destroy the chemical and biological weapons they said he had been concealing. So far, they have found nothing to contradict Iraq’s denial that it has such weapons.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the British parliament that the “vital goal” was to reach the Iraqi capital as swiftly as possible.
“Coalition forces led by the American 5th Corps are on the way to Baghdad. As we speak, they are about 60 miles south of Baghdad near Kerbala,” Blair said.
Bush-Blair meeting
A U.S. official said Bush would meet Blair Wednesday or Thursday for the first time since the start of the war.
A British soldier was killed in action Monday as he tried to calm rioting Iraqi civilians, bringing the total British dead and missing to 19. Iraqi civilians so far have shown little enthusiasm for the invaders.
Financial markets have begun to factor in a longer war than appeared last week. In New York, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Index dropped 3.6 percent, its biggest single-day loss since Sept. 27, 2002. Oil and gold prices rose, while the dollar slipped.
In Basra, water supplies were less than half the normal level following a power failure Friday at the main treatment plant on the northern outskirts of the city.
Although other plants were able to keep some 40 percent of the usual needs flowing, the quality was poor, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Annan said, “I think urgent measures should be taken. A city of that size cannot afford to go without electricity or water for long. Apart from the water aspect, you can imagine what it does for sanitation.”
Saddam, shown on Iraqi television, praised his commanders and fighters, who have stalled the U.S.-led advance in places, and told them U.S., British and other invasion forces had underestimated their resolve.
“The enemy is trapped in the sacred land of Iraq … Brave fighters, hit your enemy with all your strength,” said Saddam, wearing a military uniform and reading a speech from behind a podium. “Be patient, victory is coming.”
The U.S.-led force in Iraq risks as many as 3,000 casualties in the battle for Baghdad, and Washington has underestimated the number of troops needed, a top former commander from the 1991 Gulf War said Monday.
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division 12 years ago, said the U.S.-led force faces “a very dicey two- to three-day battle” as it pushes north toward the Iraqi capital.
“We ought to be able to do it (take Baghdad),” he told the Newsnight Program on Britain’s BBC Television late Monday.
“In the process if they (the Iraqis) actually fight, and that’s one of the assumptions, clearly it’s going to be brutal, dangerous work, and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties,” said McCaffrey, who became one of the most senior-ranking members of the U.S. military following the 1991 war.
“So if they (the Americans and British) are unwilling to face up to that, we may have a difficult time of it taking down Baghdad and Tikrit up to the Northwest.”
McCaffrey said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had misjudged the nature of the conflict. Asked if Rumsfeld made a mistake by not sending more troops to start the offensive, McCaffrey replied, “Yes, sure. I think everybody told him that.”
“I think he thought these were U.S. generals with their feet planted in World War II that didn’t understand the new way of warfare,” he added.
U.S. forces have advanced more than 200 miles into Iraqi territory since the start of the war and are beginning to confront an elite division of the Republican Guards deployed to defend the capital.
“So it ought to be a very dicey two- to three-day battle out there.” McCaffrey said of the confrontation with the Republican Guards.
He said his personal view was that the invading troops would “take them (the Iraqis) apart.”
“But we’ve never done something like this with this modest a force at such a distance from its bases,” he warned.
McCaffrey, a former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces in Latin America, served overseas for 13 years and took part in four combat tours.
He twice received the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest medal for valor in the United States.
