WAR NEWS ROUNDUP

	March 25, 2003
	A sandstorm stopped the allied advance today fifty miles outside of Baghdad. Terence Smith provides an update on the latest news on the action in Iraq and Gwen Ifill speaks with John Burns of The New York Times about the mood inside Baghdad. (Background report) (Follow-up discussion)

TERENCE SMITH: The weather held back the coalition military campaign today, but this evening Reuters News Agency quoted Pentagon officials saying that up to 300 Iraqi soldiers were killed in a major battle in the town of Najaf. Elements of the U.S. Third Infantry division are drawn up within 50 miles of the Iraqi capital while other U.S. and British forces are trying to move forward for what is expected to be the key battle of the war. ( Heavy artillery fire ) This is the prelude to a ground assault on Baghdad: British marines firing heavy artillery to soften up suspected positions of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard. And early today, U.S. F/A-18 warplanes based on carriers in the Gulf attacked other guard positions near Baghdad. But within hours, military action slowed considerably because of this: A whirling sandstorm whipping across the region. SOLDIER: Another beautiful day in Iraq, ain't it? TERENCE SMITH: The storm, carrying sand from as far away as Egypt and Libya, stalled any significant U.S. And British advance. Still, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told ABC the long- distance pounding will continue despite the sandstorm. GEN. RICHARD MYERS: Of course, one of the things you want to do is try to beat down those Republican Guard divisions the best you can, and you saw some of that the other night with the apaches as they were working on the Medina division south of Baghdad. You'll continue to see that with air, helicopters, artillery, and then we'll proceed on. TERENCE SMITH: The Republican Guard are Saddam Hussein's most loyal, best-equipped fighters. There are about 100,000 members of the guard, divided into six divisions. Three of those are said to be protecting Baghdad, and are feared to have chemical and biological weapons in their arsenal. The special units grew out of Saddam's Hussein's Palace Guard, formed during Iraq's war against Iran in the 1980s. Inside Baghdad, visibility was obscured by both blowing sand and plumes of smoke rising from a burning oil refinery to the South. Baghdad residents spent part of their day attending funerals for people they said were victims of the overnight air raids. Coalition forces are drawn up roughly 50 miles from Baghdad in Karbala, on the west side of the Euphrates River, on the edge of the so-called red zone, a heavily protected ring around the capital. U.S. troops are also near Kut on the Tigris River, according to British prime minister Tony Blair. TONY BLAIR: One marine expeditionary force are then advancing on al- Kut along two converging routes. Al-Kut is defended by the Republican Guard Baghdad division. TERENCE SMITH: U.S. Marines say they're also moving up the eastern bank of the Euphrates. After an overnight battle, the marines crossed the river at Nasiriyah and then were stalled by the sandstorm (explosions) to the south in Basra, where fighting has been going on intermittently for days, British marines shelled entrenched Iraqi troops loyal to Saddam Hussein from outside the city, and blew up Iraqi tanks captured along the way. ( Explosions ) The British also confiscated and buried weapons from Iraqi militia fighters, who were often disguised as civilians. Some are known as Fedayeen Saddam. British forces spokesman Chris Vernon: CHRIS VERNON: They are operating out of the urban areas, perhaps into our rear areas. They have some military capability, lightly armed, pretty fanatical, and of course they are dressed in civilian clothes, which makes it very difficult for us to discern between them and genuine civilians. TERENCE SMITH: Late today, British commanders reported a civilian uprising against the Fedayeen Saddam. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cautioned that that was not necessarily welcome news. DONALD RUMSFELD: I am very careful about encouraging people to rise up unless... I mean, we know there are people in those cities ready to shoot them if they try to rise up. We know there are people in that city ready to kill them if they try to escape. TERENCE SMITH: As the fighting continued, a major humanitarian crisis was developing in Basra, whose one million residents are short of food, fuel, and water. Late today, British trucks loaded with relief supplies were headed towards the city. In the southern port town of Umm Qasr, relief trucks have arrived and are being unloaded. British forces now declare Umm Qasr "safe and open," nearly a week after British and U.S. Marines first entered the town. We have a report from Bill Neely of Independent Television News. BILL NEELY: Through streets that last week were ruled by Saddam Hussein's secret police and troops, royal marines walked today, and they came as liberators. Amid the cheers of the children, guarded smiles from the men of Umm Qasr, many of whom told me they could not talk openly today-- Saddam's men are still around; it's still too dangerous. The marines brought out a trailer full of rations and water. It wasn't full for long. People here have had little food and no water for four days. The allied bombing means there's no electricity, no working sewage system. There's a lot to put right. As word spreads, more and more men emerge from their homes, a marine reassuring them in Arabic. (Conversation in Arabic) SPOKESMAN: Hopefully tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, everything will be better. BILL NEELY: But food, water, medicine? SPOKESMAN: This is one thing we're all getting them. Before we're getting food and water, they're asking for cigarettes, so, you know. (Announcement in Arabic) BILL NEELY: With a loudspeaker, the marines spread the word: We're here to bring stability and normality as soon as possible. On a night patrol, the marines surround the headquarters of Saddam's party and fire mortars, but his men aren't there. They are still around, though. Danger lurks in Umm Qasr. The marines are warned of ambushes, tripwires, and traps. TERENCE SMITH: The U.S. military also said today air strikes destroyed six devices that jam global positioning systems. It said the devices had had "no effect" on precision-guided weapons. The Bush administration has complained that Russian companies supplied Iraq with the jamming stations, and other high-tech gear. Russia strongly denied those claims again today. The British military said today two British tank crewmen were killed in a "friendly fire" incident near Basra. Another British tank mistakenly targeted their tank. And a U.S. F-16 warplane fired on a U.S. Patriot missile battery deployed inside Iraq, after the Patriot's radar mistakenly locked on. No one was hurt. Over the weekend, a Patriot missile destroyed a British plane, killing the two crew members. In all, at least 11 U.S. troops have been killed in action, and nine more in non-combat incidents. Seven are missing, and seven are prisoners of war. British forces have lost two killed in action, and two are missing; 18 have been killed in accidents. Iraq has reported some 150 civilians killed and hundreds more injured. The U.S. Military said today more than 3,500 Iraqi soldiers are now prisoners of war. Jim? JIM LEHRER: Thanks, Terry. Now, we again get the view from inside Baghdad, from John Burns of the New York Times. Gwen Ifill talked with him a short while ago. GWEN IFILL: John Burns, welcome back. JOHN BURNS: Thank you very much. GWEN IFILL: John, it seems like there is a collective breath being held as the war is on the outskirts of Baghdad but not quite in the city yet. What does it feel like inside the city waiting for this to happen? JOHN BURNS: Well, I have to say you could not imagine a grimmer picture than there is in this city tonight short of mass bloodshed itself. It sounds like a cliché, but a movie director, a Hollywood movie director could not have made a set more grim and brooding than the one in which I am now sitting beside the Tigris River in the center of Baghdad. First of all we have the sandstorm -- this enormously powerful sandstorm which I believe is impeding the American forces as they push north toward Baghdad. I've seen sandstorms in Iraq before, but nothing quite like this. By mid-afternoon tonight, today, in Baghdad, it might as well have been midnight. Along with thick clouds of sand blowing through the sky, there is, of course, the black clouds of smoke drifting across the city from the trenches filled with oil with which the city has been ringed by Saddam Hussein's forces in an attempt to blind American smart weapons and pilots. Along with the sand in the sky and the darkness, there is a howling gale, I would say gusting up to 70, 80, 90 miles an hour, palm trees along the river bending almost to the ground, the streets completely deserted, the biggest shopping streets in the city are shuttered and abandoned. Here and there a restaurant is open. Serendipitously, a pharmacy open here, a television repair shop open there, but basically this is a city that has gone to ground. My guess is that the five million people in this city as many as could do so have left. The government ministries are completely abandoned. GWEN IFILL: John, in addition to the ominous nature of the weather, you don't know whether people are indoors because of the weather or the impending military threat -- there have been a lot of reporting here in the United States today about the Iraqi army having drawn a red line around Baghdad, assuming that if American troops were to cross it, they would be threatened with chemical weapons. You covered a lot of the inspections that went on before the war, how likely does that seem to you? JOHN BURNS: Well, I would hope-- I'm not just, of course, for my own well being as well as the people that we see every day all around us in this vast city-- that that is not true. I think that anybody who followed the weapons inspections from afar would know as much as I know about that. The Iraqis have insistently denied they have them. The United States has consistently said they do have them. Iraqi people themselves are not convinced. That is to say sensibly I think they are assuming, at least the ones that I talk to, that there may be such weapons because it's a much more sensible assumption than the other one. They simply don't know and all of this adds to the apprehension with which the people are now living. Adding further to that apprehension now are the reports which are reaching Iraqis of the problems that are confronting American forces as they drive toward the city, the much stiffer resistance that the forces have met in various towns and cities on the 300-mile road north from Kuwait. This is a major concern for some people here, many people, and I think you could say right across the board, whether you are an Iraqi loyalist of Saddam Hussein or an Iraqi who would wish for a different future for Iraq, in either case, a protracted battle for Baghdad is bad news. The news from Basra tonight if confirmed of an uprising against Saddam's government within Basra will cause tremendous apprehension here. There are many Shiite Moslems in Baghdad. Saddam's city, the biggest outlying suburb of the city, is almost completely Shiite Moslems, probably two million of them. Many of those are armed. There are real worries that you could end up with A... in effect, a civil war which then is laid over the war between the United States and Iraq. You can see in this potential for a really grim situation developing. GWEN IFILL: Okay. John burns, waiting and watching in Baghdad. And we'll be waiting and watching with you. Thank you again for joining us. JOHN BURNS: Thank you, Gwen.