A major ground battle between U.S. forces and two divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard began late Tuesday, Pentagon sources said, as the U.S. government worked to shore up support both at home and abroad, and Pentagon officials defended the much-criticized U.S. war plan.
The U.S. Army and U.S. Marine units were squaring off against the Republican Guard's Baghdad Division in Al Kut and its Medina Division about 50 miles south of Baghdad, the outer edges of the defensive ring Iraqi forces have drawn around the capital.
The 1st Marine Division, the Army's 101st Airborne Division, and the 3rd Infantry Division are launching the assault, defense officials said.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday two of the Baghdad divisions had been degraded by about half after a week of strikes with artillery, aircraft and helicopters to "pretty low percentages of combat capability."
He said in at least two cases they had been reduced "below 50 percent."
"We continue to work on them," he said.
Later Tuesday, top military officers defended the U.S. war plan and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States was not negotiating a cease-fire with Iraq, a rumor he said the Iraqi government is spreading to shore up support at home. Rumsfeld's comments will be translated into Arabic and broadcast in Iraq.
"Since this broadcast is sent into Iraq, let me say this to all Iraqis who are listening: the regime is not telling the truth, there are no negotiations taking place with anyone in Saddam Hussein's regime. There will be no outcome to this war that leaves Saddam Hussein and his regime in power. Let there be no doubt. His time will end, and soon," he said.
Myers rejected charges in the media that there were insufficient troops fighting the war and that Pentagon planners were adjusting forces to cover those holes.
The charges are "false, they're absolutely wrong, they bear no resemblance to the truth and it's just harmful to our troops that are out there fighting very bravely, very courageously," he said.
"You know, to criticize something that they've never seen is pretty audacious, isn't it?" he asked.
Myers said the fact that Central Command head Gen. Tommy Franks started the ground war while Iraqi troops were hunkering down in expectation of a massive airstrike enabled U.S. and British forces to quickly seize most of the southern oil fields and to press quickly toward Baghdad without encountering a major armored force.
He said the move gave Franks tactical surprise when all strategic surprise was gone because of the long build up.
"Do you think there was tactical surprise? I think there was. Do we have the oil fields in the south? About 60 percent of the oil wealth has been preserved for the Iraqi people. You bet. Have we had a Scud fired against Jordan or Israel yet? No. Why? Because we went in very early, even before the ground war, to secure those places. Do we have humanitarian supplies flowing into Umm Qasr now? Yes. Why? Because we put the ground forces in there early. Were we 200 miles inside Iraq in 36 hours? Yes," Myers said.
The White House on Tuesday said it was unfazed by Saddam's message calling for a holy war against U.S. forces making their way across to desert toward Baghdad.
"Nothing new. Nothing original. More rhetoric of a regime that is losing its grip on power," said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
The statement reportedly from the Iraqi president urged his people to fight the coalition forces that he termed "evil aggressors damned by God." The speech was delivered on Iraqi television by Mohammad Seed al-Sahhaf, Iraq's information minister.
The speech only added to the uncertainty about whether Saddam was actually in control of his nation, or even still alive. After a bunker where he may have been hiding was hit by U.S. bombs in the opening salvo of the war last month, there were reports he might have been killed or wounded. Several taped appearances on Iraqi TV by Saddam since then could not be conclusively dated.
Tuesday's speech referred to recent events, including the battle for control of the port city of Umm Qasr, but because Saddam himself was not shown, they failed to answer the questions.
"I think obviously those who have made their living at Saddam's side don't want information about his health to be revealed," Fleischer said. "They have a stake in keeping him as alive as can be. And again, we don't know if he is or is not."
Meanwhile, President Bush continued his weeklong campaign to cull domestic support for the war and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell landed in Ankara late Tuesday to begin what has been characterized as a fence-mending trip with Turkey, a long-standing U.S. ally. U.S. and Turkish sources told United Press International a post-war role for Turkey in Iraq might be on the agenda.
CENTCOM in Qatar early Wednesday announced the successful rescue of a missing U.S. Army soldier. Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, 19, who had been missing since the March 23 ambush of her convoy, was taken from Iraq to a coalition-controlled area, CENTCOM said.
Although no Iraqi chemical or biological weapons have yet been deployed or found, chemical alert and response units were close behind the forward U.S. troops Tuesday, just in case. Large numbers of Iraqi gas masks and other protective gear have been found by advancing coalition forces, suggesting that Iraqi units are ready for chemical warfare.
The objective of coalition commanders: to destroy the Republican Guard divisions where they stand, rather than let them fall back into Baghdad to stiffen the city's defenses.
Coalition military sources said the advances upon Baghdad, and first ground war clashes Monday between U.S. scouting parties and the Republican Guard, decisively refuted media claims over the weekend of a pause in operations.
Clear skies and the coming heat of a desert summer (temperatures neared 100 degrees in central Iraq Tuesday) suggest that coalition commanders are pressing on to Baghdad without waiting for the expected reinforcement of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
Powell was also scheduled to stop in Brussels to confront hostility from some European Union nations, especially France, which had threatened to veto any U.N. Security Council resolution that could lead to the use of force to disarm Iraq of suspected weapons of mass destruction.
The United States and Britain then launched a war without it, citing as authority Resolution 1441, approved last November, which warned Iraq of "serious consequences" if it did not immediately disarm.
(Reported by Martin Walker in Kuwait City; Claude Salhani in London; Nicholas Horrock in Ankara, Turkey; Ghassan al-Kadi in Baghdad, Iraq; Kathy Gambrell at the White House; Pamela Hess at the Pentagon; William M. Reilly at the United Nations; and John Zarocostas in Geneva)
