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Home > US Edition > The Gulf War II > Report
Allied troops move closer to
Baghdad, face resistance
K S R Menon in Dubai |
March 25, 2003 18:34 IST
Coalition forces moved closer to Baghdad in what is being seen as a decisive phase in the US-led war but were facing stiff resistance on multiple fronts, mainly in the strategic port city of Basra and Nasiriyah in the south.
Strategic bombing raids on Baghdad continued for the sixth day with US helicopter gunships and warplanes attacking positions held by Republican Guards outside the capital.
An Iraqi carried out a suicide attack in the southern region of Fao overnight and destroyed a coalition tank, an Iraqi military spokesman said.
"The first suicide attack was carried out this night," Hazem al-Rawi told a press conference in Baghdad. There was no immediate confirmation of the report.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf claimed that Iraq's ruling Baath party's guerrillas killed eight coalition soldiers, downed three helicopters and destroyed more than 30 military vehicles in intense fighting around Nasiriyah and Muthanna.
He also claimed that 16 civilians have been killed and another 95 wounded in allied bombing of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.
Reports reaching here from war zone said that US forces launched an all-night artillery barrage over Baghdad pounding military targets and were 80 km away from the capital.
British forces, who said taking of Basra has now become a military objective in order to get humanitarian aid to civilians there, were involved in nearly a dozen artillery engagements on the outskirts of the city, targeting Iraqi mortars and tanks.
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