BAGHDAD, 8 April 2003 — Snipers crouched behind bridges and artillery fire rang out from almost every direction yesterday as Iraqi forces defended Baghdad against US troops who had thrust into the heart of the city.
The urban warfare that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein promised the invading forces finally began as dozens of US tanks rumbled into the city of five million people and entered two presidential compounds on the west bank of the Tigris. “Iraqi forces are blocking streets all over town and their artillery is in action,” Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul said. “The Iraqis are definitely fighting back.”
The white dust of mortar mingled with a sandstorm that cloaked the city yesterday morning obstructing visibility as the thud of artillery and mortar bombs reverberated across the capital, especially toward the west and south.
Artillery shells, apparently Iraqi, crashed into the presidential compound on the west bank of the Tigris river, where American tanks took up positions early yesterday. A Reuters photographer saw other shells, apparently American, landing in the gardens of the nearby Al-Rashid Hotel and Information Ministry.
Almost the only people walking the streets were Iraqi soldiers in full combat gear or fighters in civilian clothes. Residents hid indoors to escape the crackling automatic fire and exploding shells. State television showed old footage of Saddam and played patriotic songs. The only non-military vehicles were ambulances evacuating casualties, and pick-up trucks loaded with people fleeing the city.
US forces said they captured two presidential compounds in Baghdad, including the main Republican palace, which has been the target of almost three weeks of US air and missile raids.
The palace stretches for more than 12 km on the western bank of the Tigris. It houses the headquarters of the Republican Guards, the elite fighting force commanded by Saddam’s youngest son Qusay.
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf told reporters Iraqi forces were slaughtering the enemy and denied that US tanks had captured the palaces. “As our leader Saddam Hussein said, God is grilling their stomachs in hell,” said Sahaf, standing defiantly on a roof in central Baghdad and ignoring US tanks a few hundred meters away on the other bank of the Tigris.
Iraqi snipers crouched behind the shoulders of one bridge across the Tigris, pointing their guns toward US forces to the south. Artillery was firing from the same position. Two US soldiers and two journalists were killed and 15 people wounded when an Iraqi rocket hit a US communications center on Baghdad’s southern fringe, US military sources said. “There’s still fighting going on,” Lt. Col. Peter Bayer, operations officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker. “The fact that Iraqi forces are still fighting against US forces shows that there is still some work to do,” he said, adding that the rocket seemed to come from the south, indicating continued Iraqi resistance behind US lines.
In a separate incident, two Marines were killed trying to secure two bridges on the eastern outskirts of the city. Marines told Reuters two of their comrades were killed and three wounded when an artillery shell fired by their own side fell short.
Reuters correspondent Matthew Green said the Marines later secured the bridges and crossed with tanks and armored vehicles. They then took on Iraqi Special Republican Guard units on the Baghdad side of the river, he said.
The western side of the Tigris, which is called Karkh, was deserted, including a villa complex housing senior Saddam aides. Iraqi soldiers pointed their rocket-propelled grenades at cars coming over the bridge from that direction. Huge concrete blocks thrown on the bridge allowed only narrow passage.
Symbols of Saddam’s power, such as security complexes and the military industrialization headquarters, lie in the west.
Republican Guards took positions behind the information and foreign ministry buildings, firing rocket-propelled grenades in the direction of US troops a few hundred meters away. The Information Ministry was abandoned after missiles hit it earlier in the war. The bridge next to the ministry was open.
Iraqi television yesterday twice relayed a call to arms from Saddam, which was first broadcast on Sunday. “President Saddam has issued an order ... to all the fighters. If you find it difficult to join your unit for any reason you should join the unit that you can find until further notice.”
Seven police cars drove around the center near the Palestine Hotel where many journalists are staying, with uniformed men honking horns and firing into the air and waving the Iraqi flag.
Ambulance sirens wailed across the city, and the central Al-Kindi hospital said it had admitted three dead and 50 wounded.
Scores of civilians, with their belongings or without, chose instead to flee the bombardment. “I think 80 percent of the people have left to the east to escape bombardment,” said Ali, a resident of Saddam City, a sprawling slum on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Also on the Al-Karkh bank, hundreds of civilians pressed in vain at the gates of Al-Alawi bus station.
“All these people came here because they wanted to leave town, but there are no buses,” said a doctor from Al-Rashid military hospital trying to travel to his home in Al-Faluja, 30 kilometers west of Baghdad.
The civilians tried to flag down the odd passing private car in the hope of hitching a ride home or out of the besieged city. “I did not know there was an attack. I was caught up in the battle,” said the doctor, explaining he had just come off a night shift. “Eighty percent of the hospital beds are taken by people suffering from war injuries,” he said.
On the eastern Al-Rusafa bank of the Tigris, traffic was also slow but small neighborhood cafes were still full of people, grocery shops were open, fruit stalls erected and street vendors hawking cigarettes stood on main roundabouts. But civilians trying to cross the river by the Al-Jumhuriya bridge, close to the palace compound, were stopped by armed militiamen who did, however, allow military vehicles to cross.
