| Subject: U.S. Still Rocking Baghdad, War Councils Held |
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Date Posted: 12:28:46 04/06/03 Sun
U.S. Still Rocking Baghdad, War Councils Held
Smoke billowing over Baghdad's al-Fardous street
BAGHDAD, April 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Loud explosions and artillery fire were heard in Baghdad before dawn Sunday, April 6, hours after U.S. President George W. Bush held a "war council" with his hawkish aides and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was shown on Iraqi TV meeting his top brass as well.
Beginning in the small hours of the day, explosions and artillery fire could be heard coming from the south of Baghdad as well as occasional blasts in the city centre, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
At least two massive blasts had been heard in the centre just after midnight Saturday, April 5.
The exact targets of the explosions were unclear, but an AFP correspondent said the blasts were unusually powerful.
A missile plunged into the Tigris River late Saturday next to Saddam's main presidential palace, a frequent target, as a plane roared overhead.
On Saturday, the 17th day of hostilities, the U.S. claimed that its troops rode tanks into Baghdad, asserting that they could enter the capital at will.
Iraqi forces, including members of the elite Republican Guard and the ruling Baath party fighters, put up fierce resistance, mostly with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), according to accounts by U.S. officers and soldiers.
U.S. Central Command said on Saturday that Baghdad’s Saddam International Airport was "secure" following its seizure by U.S. troops on Friday, April 4.
For his part, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf insisted the coalition had lost more than 300 soldiers in fierce fighting around the airport, asserting that it was under control.
Meanwhile, the U.S. 101st Airborne Division launched an air assault to secure the Shiite Muslim pilgrimage city central town of Karbala, some 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
In northern Iraq, U.S. Special Forces and Iraqi Kurdish rebels had reportedly cut off the southern exits from the oil-rich Kirkuk, and were operating within five kilometre of the strategic northern city.
The U.S.-led coalition also said Saturday it had bombed the residence of Saddam's cousin and top aide, Ali Hassan al-Majid, in the southern city of Basra, which is ringed by British troops.
War Councils
An Iraqi boy looks up at the sky in Baghdad's al-Baladiyat neighborhood, hit by cluster bombs
The White House said late Saturday that Bush conferred by teleconference with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyers and their deputies.
Bush, in addition, is scheduled to hold another war council with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, April 8.
In Baghdad meanwhile, Iraqi television showed footage of Saddam chairing a meeting of top political and military advisers, including his two sons, Uday and Qusay.
The uniformed Saddam appeared at ease despite the Anglo-American onslaught.
Besides Uday, who commands Saddam Fedayeen fighters, and Qusay, leader of the Republican Guard, the meeting grouped Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmad and Latif Nuseif Jasem, a member of the Baath leadership.
The broadcast followed a televised address Friday by Saddam and rare images of the Iraqi leader wandering through smiling crowds in the capital, which has been battered by two weeks of U.S.-led air strikes.
The Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera reported 17 Iraqi civilians, including nine children, were killed in Saturday's air strikes on Basra.
In Washington, the Pentagon revised the overall U.S. casualty toll to 79 dead as the names of eight missing soldiers were added to the list of confirmed dead.
Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Colin, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said eight military personnel were still listed as missing, and seven were prisoners of war.
http://www.islamonline.net/english/News/2003-04/06/article01.shtml
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