U.S. troops push toward Baghdad, cross Tigris

Baghdad - U.S. forces closed on Baghdad in two prongs on Wednesday, securing a vital Tigris river bridge and sweeping past the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala after a withering blitz on their Republican Guard foes.

"This is so far the biggest fight of the war," said a U.S. spokesman at Central Command in Qatar, as the campaign to oust President Saddam Hussein went into its 14th day. "The battles in Kerbala and Kut are the most significant battles to date."

U.S. Marines said they seized a bridge over the Tigris west of Kut, 105 miles southeast of the Iraqi capital.

Further west, the 3rd Infantry bypassed Kerbala and headed for the Euphrates river just 50 miles from Baghdad.

The U.S. spokesman, Captain Frank Thorp, said no U.S. casualties had been reported in the fighting.

With Saddam urging a holy war against the invaders, U.S. planes pounded the southern defenses of Baghdad.

Heavy B-52 bombers also pummeled Iraqi forces in the north, while helicopters and fighter planes strafed Fedayeen militia active in the Shi'ite shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq.

"We are going to destroy them," said Lieutenant Colonel Chris Holden of the 101st Airborne.

Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray, with the 101st Airborne, saw columns of smoke rise above Najaf after British Tornado aircraft bombed the ruling Baath Party headquarters.

The concerted advances on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers followed a pause of several days, ordered by commanders to shore up vulnerable U.S. supply lines and resupply munitions.

The commander of British forces in Iraq said there should be no rush to launch an all-out assault on Baghdad that would cause unwanted destruction and civilian casualties.

"We need to proceed with great delicacy in Baghdad as we did in Basra because we don't want to cause any more damage to the place than is necessary and we certainly don't want to add to civilian casualties," Air Marshall Brian Burridge said.

He cited the tactics of British forces who have surrounded the southern city of Basra, staging a series of quick strikes into the center to kill or capture forces loyal to Saddam.

Burridge said the decisive phase of the war had begun but that it might not end quickly. "Decisive phases often take time. I wouldn't want to give the impression that within a day or two this is going to be finished," he told BBC radio.

Word that U.S. special forces had rescued a woman prisoner of war from a Nassiriya hospital overnight boosted the morale of U.S. and British troops who have faced suspicion among civilians and tougher-than-expected military resistance.

Hours before the latest assaults, America's top soldier said two of the elite Republican Guard divisions guarding Baghdad had lost more than half their original combat capability.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said those divisions had not retreated despite punishing ground and air attacks, but added some troops had dispersed "into neighborhoods and things like that."

The U.S. 3rd Infantry began its assault on Kerbala shortly after midnight, backed by warplanes, Apache attack helicopters and a furious artillery barrage which lit up the night sky.

It took only three hours to oust the Medina Division of the Republican Guards from the perimeter of the city holy to Shi'ite Muslims that lies 70 miles southwest of Baghdad.

"The U.S. military had expected a much bigger fight, but they say they have now secured the city on all sides and are continuing with their advance," said Reuters reporter Luke Baker, traveling with the 3rd Infantry.

Further east, where U.S. Marines crossed the Tigris, an officer told Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire: "That's the last big bridge we needed."

A U.S. defense official said control of the bridge could allow thousands of troops to push on Baghdad. "It's key for force flow and movement," the official said.

Another Marine unit bombarded Kut, but it was not clear if they would go into the city.

American forces that raced toward Baghdad early in the war left towns in control of Iraqi paramilitaries who then staged hit-and-run attacks on their stretched supply lines.

In Nassiriya, one such bastion of Iraqi resistance, Marines staged a decoy attack to cover the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch, 19, from a hospital in the southern city where she had been held since her convoy was ambushed on March 23.

Lynch had two broken legs and a broken arm. The bodies of two U.S. soldiers were also recovered from the hospital.

In Baghdad, Saddam urged Iraqis to fight U.S. and British troops wherever they were. "Hit them, fight them," he said in a statement read on his behalf on television on Tuesday.

Saddam, 65, long obsessed with his own security, hardly ever appears in public or on live television.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said only an "unconditional surrender" by the Iraqis could end the war.

With the land offensive hitting top gear again, U.S. planes kept up their relentless bombing of Baghdad, where Saddam is believed to have concentrated the best of his forces.

Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul heard a continuous rumble of explosions on the city's southern edge, interspersed with occasional loud blasts near the center.

Iraq says nearly 650 civilians have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded during the war. Grisly television images of Iraqi casualties have fueled Arab anger over the invasion.

Reuters reporters taken on Tuesday by Iraqi officials to a hospital in the town of Hilla, 50 miles south of Baghdad, saw 11 bodies, mostly children, apparently killed when U.S. bombs hit a residential area. "What has he done wrong?" demanded one man as he held the corpse of an infant.

U.S. soldiers, nervous about possible suicide attacks after a car bomb killed four troops on Saturday, have shot dead eight civilians at checkpoints in Iraq over the past 48 hours.

The United States has paid little heed to the diplomatic fallout from the Iraq conflict, which has sparked anti-war protests around the world, but Secretary of State Colin Powell has begun a hastily arranged trip to heal bruised relations with allies in Turkey and the European Union. -- Reuters

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