US: Some soldiers are missing

[Evanauto]

Allied forces encountered scattered resistance from Iraqi troops Sunday as fighting southern and central Iraq intensified. Meanwhile, the Arab satellite television network al-Jazeera showed what it said were America dead in an Iraqi morgue and others it said were U.S. troops taken prisoner.

"There are some American soldiers missing," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "It's illegal to do things to POWs that are humiliating to those prisoners."

Speaking on CNN, Rumsfeld said he "wasn't in a position" to link the missing American soldiers to the ones shown in the al-Jazeera video. But CNN is reporting that the Pentagon is notifying families of American soldiers that the Iraqis have taken prisoners of war.

There was plenty of bad news Sunday for an allied campaign that otherwise has had enormous success. British officials said a Patriot missile battery shot down a British Royal Air Force fighter aircraft near the Iraqi border with Kuwait; there was no word on the fate of the crew.

And an American soldier was held in a grenade attack on 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait that left one man dead.

The footage aired by al-Jazeera came from Iraqi television. It showed four bodies in uniform, lying on the floor of the room, and interviews with at least five prisoners, speaking in American-accented English.

"I come to shoot only if I am shot at," said one prisoner, who said he was from Kansas. Asked why he was fighting Iraqis, he replied: "They don't bother me; I don't bother them."

The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman said he thought fewer than 10 soldiers were missing in southern Iraq and that military officials were trying to account for them. "Beyond that, we don't know," Gen. Richard Myers said on Fox News Sunday.

The station said the prisoners were captured around Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra.

"What happened today showed that we're not surrendering easily," said Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. "It is proof we're strong and it is not an easy invasion."

Meanwhile, scores of security officers in Baghdad were seen searching the banks of the Tigris River, apparently looking for one or more pilots who may have bailed out of a downed plane. On CNN, Rumsfeld said he knew of no such aircraft that had failed to return safely from their missions.

In perhaps the most dramatic advance on the ground, the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade covered roughly 230 miles in 40 hours to take positions about 100 miles from Baghdad — less than a day's march.

The brigade raced day and night across rugged desert in more than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles. At one point the soldiers ran into an hours-long firefight, killing 100 Iraqi militiamen who confronted the Americans with machinegun-mounted vehicles. No American injuries were reported in the battle.

Several other allied units engaged in intensive gunbattles Sunday, but the only confirmed American deaths of the day were not from combat. One soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division was killed in a vehicle accident in southern Iraq, while another soldier was killed and 13 injured in a grenade attack in Kuwait that officials blamed on one of their comrades.

The attack occurred early Sunday at a 101st Airborne Division command center, where an assailant threw grenades into three tents. Three of the wounded were seriously injured; 10 had superficial wounds from grenade fragments, said George Heath, spokesman for Fort Campbell, Ky., the 101st Airborne's home base.

The suspect, found hiding in a bunker, is an engineer from an engineering platoon. The motive "most likely was resentment," said Max Blumenfeld, an Army spokesman. He did not elaborate.

The name of the soldier who died was withheld pending notification of relatives.

"Death is a tragic incident regardless of how it comes," Heath said. "But when it comes from a fellow comrade, it does even more to hurt morale."

The accidental downing of the British plane was another blow. The Tornado GR4, based in Marham, Britain, was returning from an operational mission early Sunday and was engaged by the missile battery, said a statement from the British press information center at U.S. Central Command.

"This is a tragedy and we are taking rapid steps to ensure there is no repetition," said Group Capt. Al Lockwood, a spokesman for British forces.

Asked how a U.S. missile could have brought down the plane, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told ABC's This Week that "procedures and electronic means to identify friendly aircraft and to identify adversary aircraft ... broke down somewhere."

It was the third aerial accident involving British personnel since the war began. Six British troops and a U.S. Navy officer died when two British helicopters collided, while eight British and four U.S. Marines were killed when their helicopter crashed near the Kuwait-Iraqi border.

In Baghdad, a series of air raid sirens and explosions were heard on the outskirts of the city at midmorning Sunday. Though an all-clear siren sounded, anti-aircraft fire, tracers and explosions could be heard to the north and northeast of the city 15 minutes later.

Iraqi officials said more than 500 Iraqis in four cities were injured in allied airstrikes Saturday; they said 77 civilians were killed in Basra, the main city in southern Iraq.

U.S. efforts on the northern front appeared to gathering strength. American planes landed in the Kurdish-controlled north of Iraq, carrying scores of military personnel, according to the Kurds.

There were additional airstrikes against positions of a militant Islamic group with alleged al-Qaeda and Baghdad ties. Numerous bursts of anti-aircraft artillery were heard from the direction of the northern city of Mosul.

Iraqi television reported that Saddam Hussein's home town, Tikrit, had been bombed several times. Al-Arabiya, an Arab satellite TV news channel, reported that four people were killed in those attacks.

On the ground, U.S. and British forces captured territory, towns and military installations — often with little or no opposition. But in some locations, Iraqi forces fought back with artillery fire or guerrilla-style counterattacks.

Near the Persian Gulf, Marines seized an Iraqi naval base Sunday morning at Az Zubayr. In the command center, Marines found half-eaten bowls of rice and other still-warm food.

[Taors]

Can the Al-Jazeera video be found online?

[Jimsween]

Actually the video showed, along with the prisoners, many dead american soldiers, some shot in the forehead which suggests that they were executed and then some guy started talking about how they took down 17 American armored vehicles in Basra which is obviously a lie.

[NJDeadzone]

it's the naivete of the US to not inform the US military that this fight is to the death and that one should not expect Iraqis(tribesmen or elite guard) to implement the Geneva Accord's actions.

[bumcheekcity]

At 3/23/03 01:11 PM, Taors wrote: Can the Al-Jazeera video be found online?

probably. look on kazaa or morpheus

http://www.kazaa.com

just do a search for iraq on videos, it may also be on the news again soon

i heard four soldier has been die because the airplan down in areal iraq.2 soldier from england and the another else from U.S.

[NEMESiSZ]

There has been one airplane downed, the UK jet hit by a partiot missile. THe reports of a Coalition plane going down in the Tigris River are false.

This is what happens in war people, don't act like you're suprised we don't have 0 casualties.

[Slizor]

I can only hope that a massive sandstorm covers the invading armies hiding them from their generals, which then decide to surrender. While at the same time Saddam is assainated, in the ensuing chaos this creates UN teams move in to start rebuilding Iraq and keep the US and UK out of rebuilding it.