BAGHDAD (REUTERS) — U.S. forces tightened their grip on most of the roads leading to Baghdad Sunday as bombs and artillery battered the city, hospitals were engulfed with casualties and relief organizations warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.
In southern Iraq, British tanks thrust deep into the country’s second-largest city of Basra, fighting paramilitary militiamen loyal to President Saddam Hussein. Three British soldiers were killed along with an unknown number of Iraqis as the British began to take control of the city center.
In the north, a U.S. plane mistakenly bombed a convoy of U.S. special forces and Kurdish fighters, killing 18 Kurds and wounding over 45, including the brother of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.
U.S. troops around Baghdad appeared to be methodically preparing the ground for a final assault to kill or capture Saddam, his sons and all his top associates and were meeting little organized or sustained resistance.
U.S. officers said they had cut most approaches to the sprawling capital of five million people.
“We’re just about there,” Colonel Will Grimsley of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker when asked if U.S. forces had completely encircled the city.
As if to emphasize the point, the first U.S. military aircraft, a C-130, landed at Baghdad’s international airport about one hour after nightfall, the first plane to land since U.S. forces seized the facility early Friday.
U.S. military maps seen by Reuters showed only one main road, Highway 2, remained to be secured on the outskirts of the capital. It leads north to the oil city of Kirkuk.
“Look at it from this point of view — 1st Brigade holds the airport and the west of Baghdad, the 2nd Brigade is securing the south, the 3rd Brigade is holding the northwest and the Marines are in the northeast,” Grimsley said.
U.S. WELCOMED
U.S. forces took control of the center of the holy Shi’ite Muslim city of Kerbala. Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray said that by evening they were mingling with residents who turned out in the thousands.
Relaxed, waving and smiling, they said “Good, good, good.” Children raised their thumbs in the air.
President Bush, backed by Britain, launched the war 17 days ago to oust Saddam and seize control of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denied possessing any such weapons and so far none have been found.
In other developments, Russia said a convoy carrying its ambassador and other Russian diplomats from Baghdad was attacked and four or five people were wounded. The U.S. military said the area was under Iraqi control.
“It is a war zone,” U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow told MSNBC. “We did co-ordinate with the Russian side on this departure. But Iraqi forces are active, and there are many military exchanges going on.”
There was no immediate comment from the Iraqis.
In the south, the British advance in the heart of Basra came after almost two weeks during which they had encircled and gradually stepped up pressure on the city.
The multi-pronged thrust began when overnight raids into the southern city encountered less resistance than previously, British chief-of-staff Major General Peter Wall told Reuters at the Qatar military headquarters.
‘GOOD DAY’
Conventional Iraqi army forces in Basra had “departed” the city, Wall said. But he warned that Saddam’s Baath party loyalists and Fedayeen militia were still a threat.
“It’s been a very good day, but I would just caution against excessive optimism. A relatively small number of determined people in a large city can still give us difficulty,” he said.
British spokesman Al Lockwood said, “We’re in there with tanks; we’re staying.”
The opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) said 700 of its fighters, a mixture of defectors from Saddam’s government and exiled Iraqis, arrived in southern Iraq to join the war.
In the north, Kurdish fighters said they had captured the town of Ain Sifni, northeast of Iraq’s third city Mosul.
Mortar and artillery fire thundered over Baghdad during the day. Shops were shuttered and streets deserted.
U.N. relief agencies warned of a health crisis facing Baghdad residents, with hospitals overwhelmed and infrastructure devastated.
“We expect a severe deterioration of the health situation during the days to come due to the daily bombardment that results in damage of infrastructure and sharp rise in civilian casualties,” Fadela Chaib, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman, told reporters.
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Baghdad hospitals were struggling to cope with a deluge of wounded that has stretched resources to the limit and caused growing chaos.
No toll for civilian casualties in Baghdad was available, but International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin told Reuters: “During fierce bombardment, hospitals received up to 100 casualties per hour.”
With many medical staff unable to reach hospitals due to the bombing, doctors were performing everything from surgery to taking blood, giving injections and ferrying the wounded.
“I’ve been a doctor for 25 years, and this is the worst I’ve seen in terms of number of casualties and fatal wounds,” said Osama Saleh al-Duleimi, 48, who witnessed two previous wars.
U.S. military casualties officially total 81 and Britain has lost 27 dead in the fighting, excluding Sunday’s casualties. There is no estimate of Iraqi losses, but they are believed to be well into the thousands.
Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said forces loyal to Saddam continued to fight invading troops.
“The valiant Republican Guards are encircling the enemy near the airport. We destroyed six tanks and damaged 10 others and killed 50 of the enemies’ forces,” he said.
In the “friendly fire” incident in the north, BBC correspondent John Simpson said he was in a convoy of eight or 10 cars when it was hit by an air strike, apparently called in by U.S. special forces to deal with an Iraqi tank up ahead.
Barzani’s political adviser Hoshyar Zebari said the Kurdish leader’s brother Wajeeh was badly wounded.
