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作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
First Stage of U.S.-Iraq Ground War Opens
By DAVID CRARY
To the cheers of U.S. infantrymen, the first stage of the ground
war opened Thursday with American howitzers and multiple launch
rocket systems firing at Iraqi troops.
The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division's artillery opened fire hours after
an American airstrike started the hostilities. Maj. Gen. Bufourd
Blount, the division commander, had said the artillery barrage
would signal the first phase of the ground war against Iraq.
White light glowed in the sky as dozens of artillery shells were
fired. Infantrymen who were between the howitzers and the Iraqi
border cheered as the shells screamed overhead.
The ground war was launched about an hour after Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld promised: ``the days of the Saddam Hussein regime
are numbered.''
Rumsfeld, in his first news conference since the war began, said
the United States had hit a senior Iraqi leadership position in
its initial strikes. He offered no details, saying a damage
assessment was pending.
The assault ``was the first,'' he said. ``It likely will not be the
last.''
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a massive
assault on Iraq could begin later Thursday. An American-led invasion
force of 300,000 troops was poised to strike on orders from President
Bush.
Iraq responded within hours to the U.S. air attack, firing missiles
Thursday toward American troops positioned just across its border
with Kuwait. American and British soldiers in the region briefly
donned gas masks or protective suits, but officers later said the
missiles apparently were not armed with chemical or biological weapons.
None of the Iraqi missiles caused injuries or damage, and one was
intercepted by a Patriot missile, according to U.S. officers.
Later Thursday, air raid sirens wailed repeatedly in Kuwait as U.S.
military officials donned flak vests amid warnings that another volley
of Scuds was possible.
As Rumsfeld spoke in Washington, orange flames were visible in the
direction of the southern Iraqi oil center of Basra. Associated Press
reporter Ross Simpson, embedded with a Marine unit in Kuwait, was told
by a battalion commander that ``three oil wells have been torched''
in Iraq.
Rumsfeld said he had heard similar reports of the Saddam regime setting
fire to oil wells. ``Needless to say, it is a crime for that regime to
be destroying the riches of the Iraqi people,'' he said.
The U.S. operation gained a boost, meanwhile, when Turkey's parliament
Thursday approved U.S. military use of its airspace for the war on Iraq.
The government-backed proposal allows American warplanes based in
Europe or the United States to cross Turkey to strike Iraq. The United
States also could use Turkish airspace to transport troops into northern
Iraq or to bring supplies to the region.
The U.S. launched its long-awaited war against Saddam on Wednesday night,
targeting him personally with a barrage of cruise missiles and bombs as
a prelude to invasion.
The opening salvo against Saddam was not the expected all-out aerial
bombardment, but a surgical strike seeking to eliminate the Iraqi leader
and his inner circle even before an invasion. Saddam, in a TV appearance
that U.S. officials said appeared to be delivered after the attack,
assailed it as a ``shameful crime,'' while President Bush said the world's
security was at stake.
Bush was awake early, meeting with National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice at 6 a.m. EST Thursday before heading to the Oval Office less than
an hour later.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said the U.S. strikes
killed one person and hit a customs office and some empty Iraqi TV
buildings, among other targets.
Fourteen people were treated at local hospitals, but none appeared linked
to Saddam, Iraqi doctors said. The wounded reportedly included six members
of a suburban Baghdad family who were eating breakfast and were hit by
shrapnel, and an Iraqi television journalist.
The International Red Cross on Thursday confirmed one death and 14 wounded
in the initial attacks.
In Baghdad, in the aftermath of the initial attack, the city was quiet
and a few children rode bicycles or kicked soccer balls on the streets.
But as night fell, with the threat of another attack, the streets emptied
as people rushed to find safe haven in shelters, their homes or the
countryside.
Coinciding with the strikes on Baghdad, about 1,000 U.S. troops launched
a raid on villages in southeastern Afghanistan, hunting for members of
the al-Qaida terrorist network. The U.S. operation - triggered by radio
transmissions intercepted from caves in the region - appeared to signal
to Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants that war with Iraq would not mean
any respite for them.
The State Department warned U.S. citizens abroad that they face increased
danger of retaliatory terrorist actions and anti-American violence. The
U.S. Embassy in Pakistan was shut down because of security concerns.
The first missiles hit targets in Baghdad shortly before dawn Thursday,
less than two hours after Bush's deadline of 8 p.m. EST Wednesday for
Saddam to yield power.
Bush briefly addressed the nation to announce that the war had begun.
``I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will
accept no outcome but victory,'' the president said.
U.S. and British troops massed in northern Kuwait welcomed news of the
first strikes in the war that the United States calls Operation Iraqi
Freedom.
``It's about time,'' said Lance Cpl. Chad Borgmann, 23, of Sidney, Neb.,
a member of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. ``We've been here a
month and a week. We're ready to go.''
The initial salvos against Baghdad consisted of 40 Tomahawk cruise
missiles launched from Navy ships in the Persian Gulf and the Red
Sea, as well as precision-guided 2,000-pound bombs dropped from two
F-117A Nighthawk stealth jets.
U.S. officials said the attacks were not a sign that the main air
offensive against Iraq had begun, but were approved by Bush in
response to intelligence that Saddam and his sons, Qusai and Odai,
might be sleeping in one of the targets.
About two hours after the cruise missiles hit, a subdued-looking
Saddam appeared on Iraqi television in a military uniform. An initial
review of the tape by U.S. officials indicated it was Saddam, not a double.
The fact that Saddam read from a steno pad indicated the speech was
delivered after the strike, because it was prepared in haste, the
officials said.
``We promise you that Iraq, its leadership and its people will stand
up to the evil invaders,'' he said. ``They will face a bitter defeat,
God willing.''
Hundreds of armed members of Saddam's Baath party and security forces
took up positions in Baghdad after the attack.
State and local authorities intensified security measures, hoping to
shield power plants, bridges and other facilities against possible
retaliatory strikes. In New York City, police prowled streets with
bomb-sniffing dogs, submachine guns and radiation detectors.
作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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