Iraq seems intent on forcing the one battle the U.S. doesn’t want.
Sultan Hashem Amed, Saddam Hussein’s defense minister, said Thursday that, “The enemy must come inside Baghdad, and that will be its grave. … We feel that this war must be prolonged so the enemy pays a high price.” The U.S. war plan calls for avoiding prolonged urban street fighting.
President Bush said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the U.S. was prepared to fight “however long it takes.” Neither he nor Blair would estimate how long that might be.
The Iraqi health minister, Omeed Medhat Mubarak, claimed the U.S. was “ … targeting the human beings in Iraq to decrease their morale. Then are not discriminating, differentiating.” He claimed Wednesday’s civilian death toll in Baghdad was 36, and put the total number of civilian deaths at 350 since the U.S.-led war on Iraq began a week ago. (A site called Iraq Body Count, run mostly by academics, estimates Iraqi civilian deaths at between 227 and 307.)
The U.S. says it has scrupulously tried to avoid civilian casualties by using guided weapons that are the most accurate ever built.
The U.S. command also sought to shift blame for yesterday’s explosion on a busy market street that killed some 15 people.
“We think it is entirely possible that this may have been an Iraqi missile that went up and came down, or, given the behaviors of the regime lately, it may have been a deliberate attack inside of town,” said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.
There have been widespread reports from the battlefield of Iraqi troops and militia using civilians as human shields.
Russian missiles may be killing our tanks
In fighting at Najaf, two tanks and one Bradley fighting vehicle with the division's Third Squadron, Seventh Cavalry were destroyed or damaged by antiarmor missiles. All of the crew members managed to get out safely, although the driver of one tank at first had to stay inside his shielded driver's compartment as some of the tank's own ammunition exploded around him.
U.S. officers believe that the missiles may have been a new Russian type known as a Cornet, purchased despite United Nations sanctions on arms sales to Iraq, the New York Times reports.
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