ALLIED troops renewed their drive towards Baghdad yesterday, pledging: "Our job now is killing." After three days spent bogged down by the worst sandstorms in 10 years, while harried by Iraqis and short of supplies, exhausted forces were once more ordered forward.
More than 600 bombing sorties were launched. A 10-mile convoy of Iraqi military vehicles was pounded "into oblivion" outside Najaf, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. In the south hundreds of desperate refugees flowed out of Basra where 14 British Challenger tanks destroyed 14 Iraqi T55 tanks, trying to break out of the city. Further north there was fierce fighting outside Nassiriya, where 31 US soldiers were injured by "friendly fire". A major battle was fought at Samawah, site of a crucial bridge.
Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed said last night he believed the US-led forces could encircle Baghdad in five to 10 days. He said: "They have the capability to do so." But he added ominously: "They have to come into the city eventually, God willing. Baghdad will be impregnable. We'll be everywhere and will fight to the end."
As the new assault was launched military and political chiefs warned for the first time that the war could last for months. Supply lines hundreds of miles long are dangerously over-stretched and vulnerable to attack, resistance is stiffer than expected and there is little sign of Iraqis welcoming their "saviours". President Bush said: "It will go on however long it takes to win."
A tongue slip mr. Bush? You probably meant "liberating"
| Naw. He mean "win." You can't liberate them until the war's won. |
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