Chipping away at the vestiges of Saddam Hussein's power, U.S. forces encircled Baghdad yesterday and began flying into the capital's airport. British forces in the south made their deepest push into Iraq's second-largest city.
A hulking U.S. C-130 transport plane landed at the Baghdad international airport, carrying unknown cargo but weighted with symbolism and tactical importance. The arrival presaged a major re-supply effort by air for U.S. troops, dependent until now on a tenuous line stretching 350 miles to Kuwait.
U.S. officials declared Baghdad cut off from the rest of Iraq.
"We do control the highways in and out of the city and do have the capability to interdict, to stop, to attack an Iraqi military forces that might try to either escape or to engage our forces," said Gen. Peter Pace, vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Intense fighting took a growing toll on combatants and civilians. Injured Russian diplomats and a convoy of America's Kurdish comrades in arms were among unintended victims caught in crossfire and friendly fire yesterday. Kurds said 18 of their own died in the mistaken U.S. air strike.
Assorted prizes fell into allied hands, some after hard fighting, but U.S. forces had yet to confront Baghdad's last-ditch defenders on a large scale.
"They are extremely weakened, but that does not mean they're finished," Pace said of the Republican Guard.
Southeast of Baghdad, Marines seized one of Saddam's palaces, poked through remnants of a Republican Guard headquarters and searched a suspected terrorist training camp, finding the shell of a passenger jet believed to be used for hijacking practice.
U.S. forces consolidated positions around Baghdad and declared they controlled all highways in and out -
17 Archives
by Calvin Woodward
