BAGHDAD (REUTERS) — Die-hard Iraqi defenders and U.S. invaders are waging a bloody battle of Baghdad in a war to oust President Saddam Hussein that will likely confront Washington with challenges even after the fighting ends.
U.S.-led forces that launched their war three weeks ago inflicted a public-relations setback on themselves Tuesday when they killed three journalists in the Iraqi capital from Reuters, the Arab network al-Jazeera and the Spanish channel Telecinco.
The deaths of the journalists — the Reuters cameraman and his Spanish colleague were killed by a U.S. tank shell fired into a Baghdad hotel packed with foreign journalists — prompted an outcry from media watchdog groups demanding an investigation.
The U.S. military said it had been fired on first from the hotel and regretted any casualties. Reporters in the hotel said they did not hear any firing at the tank.
Clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky and explosions reverberated across the capital as U.S. armor and artillery, backed by aircraft, took on apparently disorganized defenders armed largely with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
U.S. Capt. Frank Thorp, at Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar, said the United States was pouring more troops and armor into the capital. “There has been no organized resistance or effort to displace the coalition forces,” he said.
As optimistic as the U.S. assessments of military progress were, diplomatic obstacles loomed as President Bush addressed the question of reconstruction in a post-Saddam Iraq.
Bush held talks Tuesday with his main war ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at which they endorsed a “vital role” for the United Nations when fighting ends, but their plans may fall short of European desires.
Pressed on what precisely the U.N. role would be, Bush mentioned only humanitarian work, “suggesting” people to staff the interim authority and helping Iraq “progress.”
He did not spell out how much power the United Nations would have, an omission likely to alarm some in Europe and the Arab world. Nor did Bush elaborate on Washington’s plans to place U.S. officials alongside Iraqis in an interim administration.
The United States and Britain launched the war on Iraq March 20 to topple Saddam and rid the country of weapons of mass destruction, which Iraq denies having.
Chirac wants U.N. in charge
French President Jacques Chirac, who led opposition to the war, said the United Nations alone should take charge of the economic and political reconstruction of Iraq.
“We are no longer in an era where one or two countries can control the fate of another country,” Chirac said in a news conference.
Chirac said, however, that he understood Bush believed the role of the United Nations would be vital. “I completely share this sentiment. Next we have to see how things fall into place.”
Residents of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, which fell to British troops this week, complained of a power vacuum as armed men roamed the streets, looting and pillaging.
“We are caught between two enemies, Saddam and the British,” said Osama Ijam, a 24-year-old medical student in the grounds of the rundown Basra General Hospital.
“Is this what they call a liberation? We want our own government. We want our own security and our own law.”
British officials said a local “sheikh” would take over leadership in Basra province.
A U.S.-led civil administration started work in Iraq Tuesday, when a team of about 20 officials deployed in the southern town of Umm Qasr to assess humanitarian needs, a spokesman said.
The opposition Iraqi National Congress said leaders from across southern Iraq flocked to the town of Nassiriya to greet its leader, Ahmad Chalabi, but a CIA report said he and other returning exiles would find little support among Iraqis.
The classified CIA report appeared to be part of the long and bitter struggle within the Bush administration over whether Chalabi and his colleagues can be effective leaders.
The fate of Saddam, target this week of the second bombing raid aimed directly at him, was still unclear Wednesday.
Asked if he thought the Iraqi president was still alive, Bush told reporters Tuesday: “I don’t know whether he survived.
“The only thing I can tell you is … that grip I used to describe that Saddam had around the throats of the Iraqi people is loosening. I can’t tell you if all 10 fingers are off the throat, but finger by finger it’s coming off, and the people are beginning to realize that.”
In other war news, two U.S. airmen were listed as missing Tuesday after their F-15E warplane went down in Iraq Sunday.
The two men and their aircraft, known as a Strike Eagle, were deployed from the 4th Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, the Defense Department said in a statement.
The cause of the incident was under investigation, the statement said, but it provided no details of any search and rescue operations.
It added a note of warning to Iraq.
“The (U.S.-led) coalition expects Iraqi forces and Iraqi citizens to abide by all Geneva Conventions relating to the treatment of prisoners. Violations of these laws will bring swift and severe consequences,” the statement said.
The two airmen were among the 10 listed as missing on the Pentagon’s casualties list. So far, 96 U.S. military personnel have been killed and seven are listed as prisoners of war.
Earlier on Tuesday, a U.S. A-10 Warthog ground attack fighter was shot down near Baghdad Airport, but the pilot was safely rescued, officials at Central Command war headquarters said.
