Explosions rocked Baghdad at dawn on Sunday as U.S. forces ranged around the Iraqi capital. The explosions, accompanied by the roar of warplanes over the center of the city, echoed from the southwest, where U.S. forces consolidated their grip on the international airport, Reuters reported.
The United States appeared increasingly confident of its ability to crush remaining Iraqi resistance. "The preponderance of the Republican Guard divisions outside of Baghdad are now dead," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Moseley. "I find it interesting when folks say we're softening them up. We're not softening them up, we're killing them."
Moseley said dozens of air force fighters and bombers were stacked up over Baghdad to support the ground troops, ready to launch a range of precision bombs and rockets day and night in an aerial form of house-to-house combat.
President George W. Bush said Iraqi forces were in their "final days."
In the north, U.S. forces and Kurdish militia fighters pushed closer to the oil centers of Mosul and Kirkuk as U.S. planes pounded Iraqi fighters defending both cities.
Kurdish fighters also said they had captured the town of Domiz, home to an Iraqi military base on the road to Mosul, after a firefight with defending Iraqi troops. (Albawaba.com)
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