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Baghdad was turned into a
battlefield on Monday as US troops attempted deep forays into the
very heart of the Iraqi capital and staked claim to having
seized three presidential palaces located in the city.
But defiant Iraqis insisted that
the US incursions had been repulsed and that the city
remained “safe and protected” under their control.
Amid the conflicting claims, huge
explosions echoed intermittently across the besieged capital and
gun battles erupted in various places of the embattled city.
Under the US-led ground offensive,
Baghdad witnessed ferocious fighting with Iraqi soldiers taking up
positions behind sandbags and trees that lined the streets.
As explosions grew louder, larger
numbers of heavily armed Iraqi special forces took to the streets.
Clusters of men in both military
fatigues and civilian clothes, with ammunition strapped to their
chests, had taken up positions at the city’s intersections.
Several hours after the first
claims were made by US officials that they had seized
control of the Republican Palace on the bank of Tigris, heavy
artillery fire could be heard from inside the compound.
Correspondents of Al Jazeera
television reporting from Baghdad said that there was still no
independent confirmation of who controlled the palace
although fighting was continuing there.
French news agency, AFP reported in
the evening that at least four US Bradley fighting vehicles were
positioned next to the palace.
The confusion over who controlled
the palaces followed earlier US claims that 65 tanks and over 40
Bradley fighting vehicles had made an early morning incursion
straight into the city centre.
“We have taken control of three
palaces,” said Lt. Colonel Peter Bayer of the US 3rd
Infantry division within hours of the day’s ground offensive on
Baghdad.
But a defiant Iraqi Information
minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf claimed that the “city was
safe and protected, still under Iraqi control.”
“Don’t believe the liars,” the Iraqi minister, looking
remarkably composed, told journalists in an impromptu street press
conference.
The minister claimed that “US
troops were getting slaughtered in hundreds at the gates of
the capital” and blamed the media for portraying a misleading
picture.
Amid the battles, President Saddam
Hussein chaired a meeting of top military and political brass
including his son Qussay, head of the elite Republican Guard,
state-run television said, showing pictures.
Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan,
Defence Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed and army chief Ibrahim Abdul
Sattar attended.
Director general of the Iraqi presidency, Ahmed Hussein Khudayer,
and Latif Nuseif Jasem, a member of the ruling Baath party's
leadership, were also present.
Wearing military uniform, Saddam
was shown sitting behind a desk in a large room with a bay window
and drawn curtains. The location was not disclosed. A large
map of Iraq was stuck on the wall behind the Iraqi leader.
Both sides suffered casualties in
the day’s fighting in Baghdad. US officials admitted that at
least three US Marines had died and several others injured after
an Iraqi offensive on a US communication center in the city’s
outskirts. There were no reports about the number of Iraqi dead
and wounded.
US spokesman, Major Mike
Birmingham, later told reporters on the ground that two more
soldiers plus two journalists had died in a rocket attack on
the tactical operations centre of the 2nd Brigade's combat
team.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Bayer,
operations officer with the division, said 17 US vehicles were
destroyed in the attack, 15 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Baghdad
were overflowing with the civilian dead and the injured. The
central Al Kindi hospital alone reported five dead and over 50
injured on Monday. Hard-pressed doctors said that they were
facing a virtual deluge of the wounded.
Journalists reporting from the
besieged city reported huge explosions ripping through the city in
the early hours of the day. Several massive blasts were heard
from the direction of the Republican Palace as layers of thick
smoke billowed out. Fuel trenches inside the compound were also
stated to be on fire.
Artillery fire was also heard from
the direction of the Saddam International Airport, which had
reportedly fallen to the US troops two days earlier.
An Al Jazeera television crew was
shot at by US troops in the morning as they attempted to drive to
the airport.
Al Jazeera television reported the
presence of a large number of armed Iraqi men on Baghdad’s
streets. Carrying rocket propelled grenades and ammunition
strapping their chests, they stood guard at various cross
sections.
Resistance to the US advance was
reported to be fierce in several places. The Iraqis claimed
to have thwarted US attempts to break into the city from Al Daura
district.
Reuters correspondent, Khaled Oweis
reported that Iraqi troops were blocking many of the bridges
over the Tigris while Republic Guards were maintaining vigil
around key ministries.
US military officials however
insisted that they have punched their way through central
Baghdad’s city center. With low flying US planes and a
pilot-less reconnaissance aircraft prowling the city sky, the US
claimed to have made rapid gains inside the city.
But Al Jazeera TV correspondent
Tayseer Alouni reported eyewitnesses saying they had seen four
destroyed US tanks in the southern district of Al Doura.
“The goal is not to take ground.
This is an armoured raid through the city,” said captain Frank
Thorp at the US war headquarters in Doha.
Military analysts said the US push
was probably a probe to test the strength of Iraqi defences.
"We did not see US military
forces fighting in Baghdad. US military units in Baghdad, are for
reconnaissance. We will see a US penetration from a different side
every day. The missions will try to test the powerful spot of the
Iraqi forces. In this case, the air force may interfere and so all
the arms, to guarantee a secured withdrawal," said General
Mohamed Ali Bilal, Chief of Staff of Egyptian Forces in 1991 Gulf
War".
With the battle coming to engulf
the entire city, fear-stricken civilians generally stayed indoors.
The city streets looked lot emptier than what it has been ever
since the start of the invasion nearly three weeks ago. ---Al
Jazeera and Agencies
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