U.S. forces storm into heart of Baghdad

Baghdad - U.S. forces in tanks and armored vehicles stormed into the center of Baghdad on Monday, seizing one of Saddam Hussein's palaces and briefly surrounding the Information Ministry in a bold daylight raid aimed at demonstrating the Americans can come and go as they please.

More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles took part in the lightning thrust by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, with tank-killing A-10 Warthog planes and pilotless drones providing air cover against mostly disorganized resistance.

At the city's southern edge, though, Marines and Army troops faced bloody fighting.

Four or five Marines were reported killed when their armored troop carrier was hit by an artillery shell at a bridge spanning a canal. The Marines advanced into the capital by foot after the Iraqis blew the bridge.

Also, a group of U.S. armored personnel carriers in southern Baghdad was hit by rockets, according to field reports. Six American soldiers were reported missing and a large number were wounded.

In the heart of Baghdad, American soldiers who reached the gold-and-blue-domed New Presidential Palace used the toilets, rifled through documents in the bombed-out compound, and helped themselves to ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab glassware and other souvenirs. The Americans also blew up a statue of Saddam on horseback in the center of the city.

"I do believe this city is freakin' ours," boasted Capt. Chris Carter of Watkinsville Ga.

U.S. troops set up a prisoner of war collection point in the palace compound. As Iraqis were captured in street fighting outside, they were brought to the palace for processing before being sent behind U.S. lines.

There was no estimate of Iraqi casualties from the raid, but 10 miles outside the capital, about 100 Iraqi soldiers were reported killed at the Baghdad airport in seven hours of fighting that ended early Monday. On Sunday, a giant C-130 transport landed at the airport in the first known arrival of a U.S. plane since the airfield fell into U.S. hands last week.

During their armored thrust into the city, allied forces also surrounded the state-owned Al-Rashid Hotel for a time. It was used by foreign reporters during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). At that time, the U.S. government alleged that the building housed a military communications center. This time, many foreign journalists are staying at the Palestine Hotel.

During a dust-blown news conference on the roof of the Palestine Hotel, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said the American invaders had tried to penetrate the city but were slaughtered. He declared: "Be assured Baghdad is safe, secure and great."

"There is no presence of the American columns in the city of Baghdad, none at all," he said. A sandstorm and black smoke from oil trench fires that were set by the Iraqis to cloak the city cast a haze over Baghdad.

Iraqi radio broadcast a religious sermon denouncing the United States and Britain and exhorting Iraqis to fight. Iraqi TV broadcast patriotic songs and footage of Iraqis chanting slogans in support of Saddam.

As of noon, explosions and gunfire continued to be heard from the center of the city. Few shops were open, and only a few people were out on the streets. At the main bus terminal close to the Al-Rashid Hotel, about 500 people including soldiers stood around, waiting for buses.

The Information Ministry looked deserted except for several men carrying rocket-propelled grenade rifles and half a dozen army troops behind sandbagged fighting positions outside. They flashed the V for victory sign.

Not far from the Al-Rashid Hotel, Iraqi army trucks and at least two artillery cannons looked abandoned.

Armed militiamen milled around the area on bicycles, and army troops and militiamen darted around in muddy, four-by-four vehicles.

Map of Baghdad

The U.S. military portrayed the strike as a raid through the city, not a seizure of territory or targets. Army Col. David Perkins told his troops that the mission was a demonstration that U.S. forces could move about the city at will.

"I hope this makes it clear to the Iraqi people that this (the regime) is over and that they can now enjoy their new freedom," Perkins said.

Tanks barreled into the capital on the western side of the Tigris River at 6 a.m. As they approached Baghdad along Highway 8, they met moderate resistance — mostly assault fire and rocket-propelled grenades from infantry.

The Army columns moved northeast to the newest and main presidential palace on the river, which divides the capital. The palace, which is near Saddam's destroyed Baath Party headquarters, apparently was mainly residential rather than used for administrative purposes.

Iraqis — some nearly naked — fled along its banks. Some jumped into the water.

Before the Americans seized the complex, Iraqis shot at them from a clock tower overlooking the compound. Tanks quickly destroyed it.

The main palace building — sand-colored brick ornamented with blue tile — was flooded in the basement and first floor. The rest of the building appeared to be destroyed, hit by cruise missiles or laser-guided bombs during previous raids. Palace curtains were strewn over the ground.

"This used to be a nice place. They should make it like a Six Flags, or something," said Spc. Robert Blake of State College, Pa.

During the Army's advance into the city, about 200 anti-tank mines that had been scattered on the road had to be pushed aside.

"I think it's a good testament to the American soldier," Perkins said. "In the last 17 days — over 500 miles and heavy, heavy fighting on many days — to finally be here is a great accomplishment."

The assault followed a weekend of incursions into Baghdad by U.S. armored formations. Thousands of Iraqis were reported killed.

Suggesting disarray among Iraq (news - web sites)'s elite fighters, Saddam urged Iraqi troops separated from their combat units to join other squads to fend off the Americans, in a statement read Sunday on Iraqi television and radio.

Iraqi state radio also read a decree by Saddam awarding two female suicide bombers posthumously the medal of the Al-Rafdin — or "The Two Rivers" — the nation's highest decoration, and giving their families $28,000 each. The attack last week in western Iraq killed three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint. -- Associated Press

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