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Looking For Trouble |
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March 20 |
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(Published March 21) A THUNDEROUS barrage of artillery fire and bombs rocked southern Iraq last night after a day in which British troops camped in the desert of Northern Kuwait and faced wave upon wave of missile attacks and alarms. Troops were repeatedly ordered to dive into slit trenches and don helmets and gas masks as warnings came of incoming Scud missiles. Explosions reverberated around the desert, the ground shuddering, the sound echoing along the lines of armoured vehicles. In that sudden transition from peace to war men stopped in their tracks, startled into silence. Lying in their trenches, all they could do was wait. And wait. Another Scud warning said to be heading their way. Five minutes to impact they heard on the radios. In the trench few words were uttered. Hunkered down, they gazed blankly at the earth a few inches from their faces, sometimes letting their eyes be drawn inexorably back to the sky. It was already light yesterday morning when George Bush began to address the American people telling them the attacks on Iraq were under way. Around the camp where the Black Watch had been based for weeks, reports were already coming through that two Iraqi divisions were planning to surrender. As they waited for orders, the Desert Rats climbed out of vehicles and settled down and waited for something to happen. They did not have to wait long. Without warning the war came to them. Sounds of artillery fire came from north and south, and from the east the sound of a massive explosion, the thump of heavy gunfire reverberating around the desert. At a field hospital somewhere to the rear, chemical detectors triggered the blaring of vehicle horns, and shouts of "gas, gas, gas" signalled the urgent orders to put on gas masks. Fast! Soldiers snatched at their respirators and ran for cover. A few moments later more explosions and another alert. Then reports came through that a Scud missile had landed somewhere in the desert not far from their position. Alerts came thick and fast, soldiers waiting for cover inside and under their vehicles. Drivers dived beneath lorries packed with fuel and ammunition, knowing that any explosion would detonate their cargo and blast them into oblivion. A lull provided the opportunity for diggers to appear around the camp hurriedly excavating slit trenches. When the next alert came it was a warning that a Scud had been fired. Its launch had been spotted, its target unknown. The soldiers grabbed helmets and dived into the trenches, the loose sand around the edges giving way and crumbling on top of them. They squatted, heads down, and waited again. It was a tactic to which they had to resort many times the same day. Other missiles had also come down on the Kuwaiti side. Sporadic artillery exchanges, shook the ground anew as guns fired and shells landed. For those coming under fire for the first time in their military lives it was a swift and salutary reminder of the realities of warfare, the gut-churning uncertainty that comes with the knowledge that a missile had been fired in their direction, that it could land near them, or on them, that someone wanted them dead. Despite the growing number of attacks, fear and anger began to give way to resignation. Someone found a football and began kicking it around, others tried to return to their books or their letters home. So the day went on. More alarms, more frantic diving for trenches, dirt in their mouths and eyes, cascading down inside the necks of their tunics. Then shouts of "all clear" sounded. They scrambled out again, slightly sick, slightly elated, slightly embarrassed that they were happy in relief at the news that the Scud is someone else's problem.
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(News copy published March 21) ALLIED troops were advancing into Iraqi territory last night after British and United States marines spearheaded a two-pronged assault on Saddam Hussein's forces. Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade began the invasion by establishing a strategic coastal beachhead to open the way for an assault on the key southern city of Basra. British artillery units also punched a hole in the Iraqi defences to allow the US 7th Cavalry to cross the border and lead a separate advance on Baghdad which is expected to be joined by the UK's 7th Armoured Brigade, the "Desert Rats". Early this morning, the cavalry, armed with Abrams main battle tanks, had been rolling unopposed across the southern Iraqi desert for more than two hours. Basra, meanwhile, was hit by large explosions amid reports of allied bombers roaming the skies. In the north of the country, Mosul was rocked by explosions. The city lies just outside a Kurdish-run zone, 60 miles south of the Turkish border. The invasion to the south was part of a land, air and sea assault which included the bombardment of Baghdad with cruise missiles and guided bombs. Reports from the frontline suggested the battle plans had been brought forward to protect the oilfields surrounding Basra after Saddam's forces began setting fire to oil wells within Iraq and firing Scud missiles at Kuwait. Military sources said an entire division of British troops was advancing on Basra with air support from helicopter gunships and RAF Harriers. One senior official said: "This is a big operation with everything rolling forward. It is the whole shooting match." The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, last night made a televised address to the nation saying: "British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea. Their mission: to remove Saddam from power and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction." Mr Blair, who was attending a European Union summit, recorded the statement before flying to Brussels. He said the world faced a new threat "of disorder and chaos born either of brutal states like Iraq, armed with weapons of mass destruction, or of extreme terrorist groups. Both hate our way of life, our freedom, our democracy". In the opening stages of the invasion, Royal Marines from 40 and 42 Commando took the strategically important Al Faw peninsula in the Persian Gulf as part of a drive to establish a coastal bridgehead on Iraqi soil. The 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, whose lightweight guns were requested by the US Marines to provide fire cover, also crossed the border into Iraq. Another allied infantry force led by the US 3rd Infantry Division overcame light resistance and reportedly seized the Iraqi sea port of Umm Qasr, the first major settlement on the route to the southern city of Basra. US marines exchanged fire with Iraqi forces, destroying a T-55 tank with a portable anti-tank missile and taking out several more armoured vehicles. The expeditionary infantry force moved across the Iraqi border at the same time as a bombardment of the capital Baghdad left parts of the city centre in flames. Cruise missiles launched by Royal Navy submarines were aimed at government buildings on the banks of the River Tigris including the Republican Guard headquarters. One target was Saddam's family home in Baghdad. Iraqi radio said the building had been hit but no-one killed. Other combat missions were flown by RAF Tornado GR4s armed with 1,000lb Paveway bombs along with Harrier fighter jets seeking out mobile Scud missile launchers. Iraqi forces fired up to six Scud missiles at US and British troop positions in Northern Kuwait, forcing soldiers to repeatedly put on gas masks and protection suits in case they carried chemical or biological warheads. Two of the missiles were intercepted and destroyed by US Patriot missile batteries and the others landed in the desert without striking their targets. All were believed to have been fitted with conventional warheads. Saddam ordered the retaliatory action immediately after surviving the pre -dawn attempt to assassinate him with an attack of cruise missiles and F-117A Stealth bombers on a safe house where he was thought to have been hiding early yesterday morning. Within hours of the attack the Iraqi leader appeared on television to show that he had escaped, and describe the US president as "little, evil Bush". The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said it was possible the TV broadcast was made by a double of Saddam. Mr Rumsfeld urged Iraqi soldiers to surrender and to disobey orders to fire chemical or biological weapons. "The days of the Saddam Hussein regime are numbered," he said. "What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict. It will be of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what has been seen before." The Pentagon insisted the onslaught had not yet started, saying the first day's bombardment of Baghdad and combat skirmishes on the Kuwaiti border did not represent the "shock and awe" it had threatened to unleash on Saddam. In the House of Commons, the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, told MPs: "I would caution the House against suggestions that this campaign will be over in a very short time." The US president, George Bush said US troops had "performed with great skill and great bravery." Despite continued opposition overseas, including criticism from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Mr Bush said 40 nations backed the American-led effort to topple Saddam. Turkey approved a limited form of co-operation during the day with the country's parliament voting to let aircraft fly over the country's airspace. Pentagon officials said initial reports of the opening stages of the campaign were "encouraging" with the suggestion that senior figures in the Iraqi regime had been captured or killed. One official said Saddam's power base was "breaking from within" and there were reports that up to 20 per cent of his elite Republican Guards were on the brink of surrender.
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