U.S.-led invasion forces faced tough resistance on Tuesday as they began an assault on elite troops defending the approaches to Baghdad, while the humanitarian situation worsened in southern Iraq.
Distant explosions could be heard from the capital early on Tuesday, the sixth day of the war, apparently from front lines dozens of kilometers to the south. Baghdad was also hit by missile or bomb attacks just before midnight.
A sandstorm cut visibility around a giant U.S. military convoy near the town of Najaf, about 160 kilometers south of Baghdad.
The Pentagon said on Monday that U.S. forces, which have advanced more than 320 kilometers into Iraq, were starting to confront a division of the Republican Guards deployed to defend the city.
But a helicopter assault on the Iraqi force ran into strong fire. The U.S. military acknowledged losing one helicopter and Iraqi television showed two men it said were the crew.
Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations for the U.S. military's Joint Staff, said the Medina division was a linchpin to the Republican Guard defenses of the capital.
A senior Pentagon source said he could not confirm U.S. media reports that Iraqi leaders had drawn a "red line" around Baghdad within which Republican Guard had been authorized to used chemical weapons. Iraq denies that it has such weapons.
The U.S. and British forces have faced stiff resistance from Iraqi forces in towns including Nassiriya, Basra and Umm Qasr.
Warnings intensified of a humanitarian crisis as fighting in the south continued. Aid and water grew short in Iraq's second city, Basra.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent action to ensure there was enough water in Basra.
"Urgent measures should be taken," he said. "A city of that size cannot afford to go without electricity or water for long. Apart from the water aspect, you can imagine what it does for sanitation."
In Basra, water supplies were less than half the normal level following a power failure on Friday at the main treatment plant on the northern outskirts of the city, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
