Large Scale Ground Assault Ready

On the fifth day of war in Iraq, U.S. and British coalition forces confronted the main force of the Iraqi elite Republican Guards at a close range in an area 70km south of Baghdad and were preparing for a large scale ground assault on Tuesday.

However, a powerful sandstorm slowed down the advance of coalition forces on Monday, as the Iraqis are unpredictably resisting strongly in the southern regions, the war doesn’t seem to see an end.

Coalition forces conducted large scale B-52 bombing runs on buildings housing Republic Guards in Baghdad on Monday. With the aid of the air attack, U.S. troops could advance up to 32km of the main force of the Iraqi Republican Guards, Time reported on Sunday.

Coalition forces are planning to rally 6,000 combat troops, 400 tanks, and 100 Apache attack helicopters to attack 3 Divisions of the Republican Guards which are positioned East, West, and South of Baghdad.

The U.S. 7th Armored Regiment of 3rd Infantry Division has had its first battle against units of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The Armored Brigade of the Medina Division were positioned about 70 to 80 km north of Baghdad for 3 hours on Monday but retreated after losing one Apache attack helicopter.

On the same day, coalition forces were entangled by guerrilla tactics of Iraqi Special Forces in many regions of Iraq, such as Basra , Jubayr, and Umm Qasr and couldn’t have significant results.

The Associated Press estimated that there have been 20 U.S. casualties and 17 British casualties, and 14 U.S. soldiers and 2 British soldiers are missing with a total of 53 coalition soldiers missing or dead. Also according to the estimation, Iraqi civilian causalities are now over 200 and there are over 300 Iraqi prisoners of war and the U.S. prisoners of war are estimated to number 7.

However, Iraqi ambassador of Pakistan Abdel Hamid Al-Rawi claimed that there now over 100 U.S. casualties and Iraqi civilian casualties are also over 6,000.

U.S. Central Command General Tommy Franks claimed that the operation has been successful so far and said that there would be no change in strategy.

However, there is now strong criticism in the U.S. and Britain that the strategy which was implemented to minimize civilian casualties has been thwarted by guerrilla warfare (‘dirty strategy’) and has caused many casualties on the coalition side”

U.S. administration officials said the Iraqi government has drawn ‘a red line’ around Baghdad which authorizes Republican Guards to use chemical weapons if coalition forces cross it, reported CBS and NBC on Monday.

Meanwhile, Iraq`s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz had a press conference on Monday and claimed that the Iraqi leadership are all safe and sound and President Saddam Hussein is in full control of Iraq.

sechepa@donga.com