Baghdad on brink of big battle

Baghdad - The man selling chicken sandwiches on Karada Street had not seen them. Nor had the people at the petrol station a little further out of town. 

There was no sign of them near the Palestine Hotel where most foreign journalists were staying. 

But by last night the Iraqi military knew the Americans were coming, which was why they were setting up artillery pieces, manning bridges with rocket-propelled grenades and checking their machine guns. Despite breathless claims by US spokesmen that their forces were able to freely move around in 'downtown' Baghdad, the only army in sight was Saddam Hussein's. And it was getting ready for a fight.

Russian-made tanks moved along the roads; soldiers were gathered under flyovers. Most people on the streets, in and out of uniform, were armed. There seemed little doubt that the Iraqis were willing to stage a last stand.

'The Americans will have big trouble - now Baghdad is all one army,' an Iraqi member of the foreign service cried, as militia fighters toured the streets urging people to fight. 'Everybody has guns. And the army is everywhere - you can see for yourself on the streets. We will make a circle around the Americans and it will be very difficult for them.'

Earlier, in search of the US forces, we had passed the area where Saddam Hussein, or someone who looked like him, was filmed kissing a baby and shaking hands with a small, enthusiastic crowd. Most Iraqis I talked to said it was their President.

With its looping river and expansive suburbs, the geography of Baghdad can be confusing even to local residents. It must also have proved confusing to US forces, who had reportedly entered the city by convoy, shooting up cars of suicide bombers who careered towards them.

They had not, however, been in the city centre. Or not as we knew it.

On several long drives around the southern and northern areas of Baghdad, only Iraqi tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery were on the streets.

Soldiers and armed civilians guarded intersections, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers lay propped against dirt mounds in the centre of main roads as soldiers prepared ambushes. There were rumours of fighting in Jadriya, a wealthy southern suburb along the Tigris river where Uday, the president's oldest son, has a private boat club. We drove south along Abu Nuwas street past a large artillery gun being dug into the river bank a few hundred metres from the Palestine Hotel where most journalists stay.

In Jadriya, there were few people on the streets but those out walking said there had been no fighting in the area. Car radios played a mix of patriotic Iraqi anthems and martial bands.

Eventually, after hours of fruitless searching, we met an American 'human shield' who had been evacuated from the Dora power plant in south-western Baghdad after what appeared to have been a firefight with US tanks. 'It started about 6am and lasted about two hours,' said Marc Eubanks. 'There was small arms fire and artillery. Our Iraqi minders evacuated us and took us to a nearby house.'

We pressed on, crossing the Tigris. Following the highway south towards the electrical plant, we finally came across the first sign of the US foray as they moved north: a small torched car on the shoulder of a turn off to the main highway. From the overpass we could see the burning wreckage of trucks and cars scattered across the road surrounded by soldiers.

As we approached, we saw the ruins of a pick-up with a mounted gun, its barrel blown off. Nearby, an army truck burned in the middle of the road near an overturned tanker. The battle appeared to have taken place over several hundred metres of the highway and destroyed a dozen vehicles. There were no signs that the US left behind any of their armour.

A resident said he had seen two American tanks pass by which he assumed to be heading for the airport. If this was the foray into downtown Baghdad, it was swift and little more than a probe of Iraqi defences. It appeared the allies were using the the same approach they took in the south, edging closer and pulling back without entering the city in large numbers.

As we drove away, we saw three artillery guns sitting in the wasteland near the highway and soldiers with RPGs stood on flyovers waiting for the next American attempt. Yet the US appears now to have lost the advantage of surprise as Iraqi tanks and artillery were placed around the city overnight.

However, Iraqi government officials appeared to be caught off guard by the swift attack on Saddam International Airport 24 hours earlier. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told journalists yesterday 'Everything is okay', and that the Iraqis had driven the Americans from the airport. He then promised an airport visit that never materialised. Probably because the Americans were still there.

We left our car and joined other journalists packed on official buses, some of us hanging from the doorway, as we made a circuitous journey to the al Yarmouk hospital. It seemed that there were parts of Baghdad the government did not want us to see. At the hospital, the buses were turned away by surgeons covered in blood from recent operations.

At the al Kindy hospital, journalists said as many as 100 casualties arrived in the space of an hour, some them soldiers, including Saddam Fedayeen commandos in their black uniforms.

On the way to and from the hospital, there was further evidence that the Iraqis were getting ready for an attack. Artillery pieces and armoured personnel carriers were camouflaged among the trees, and soldiers were getting out of their trenches to make tea after a night of heavy bombing. The road was packed with vehicles heading out of the city.

Not that the civilian population was under any illusion about what is likely to happen in the not-too-distant future. Iraqis continued to leave the city in large numbers, with families hitchhiking by the roadside and dumper trucks carrying groups heading north away from the approaching army.

At the petrol station, a long line had formed with most of the cars piled high with belongings. Along the roads, women in black holding their children waved down cars, few of which had room to spare.

It is unclear what exactly happened in Baghdad yesterday. But the Americans will probably not be able to make the kind of incursion they claimed to have made again without suffering greater losses.

Yesterday evening, a man wearing traditional Arab robes arrived at the Palestine Hotel carrying a Kalashnikov and a pink plastic bag holding a beige uniform of desert camouflage and an army issue sun hat. The name on the uniform was Diaz.

The man carefully arranged the uniform on the ground, as if he were making a window display at a department store, and a group of young men wiped their feet on the US flag. -- Observer News

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