US: no pause in attack on Baghdad

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Mar 30, 2003 | by From Jamie Dettmer

Pentagon officials bristled yesterday at claims that an operational pause was ordered this weekend in the push by coalition forces towards Baghdad. But their denials contradicted statements by field commanders, who say stiff Iraqi resistance and supply delays have prompted a review of the timing of the next major thrust northwards.

"Because you see a particular formation not moving on a day, does not mean there is a pause on the battlefield," insisted Air Force Maj Gen Victor Renuart, in a briefing at the US Central Command in Doha, Qatar. "It would be unfair to characterise the fact that you don't see tanks rolling on every single day as any pause in the operation.

"We are conducting our air operations throughout the battlefield, we conduct artillery raids, we conduct deep attacks like we did last night, we conduct long-range patrols in order to fix and identify where enemy formations may be."

In Washington a similar line was pushed by Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, who brushed aside all questions about a pause at a press conference. She presented a list of accomplishments and objectives secured - although most of her examples came from the first few days of the war, including the capture of Iraq's southern oilfields.

Her upbeat insistence failed to square with what field commanders were saying yesterday. Nor did it explain the difference between the initial lightening pace of the 3rd Infantry Division with its failure to take new ground closer to Baghdad in the past three days. They remain "paused" 50 miles from the capital.

Asked if there appeared to be an ordered pause, retired Maj Gen Don Shepperd said: "It makes sense not to want the 3rd Infantry charging ahead. There should be a replenishment of supplies now, a sorting out of logistical lines. And the marines need to catch up on the right flank. The pause doesn't mean you stop fighting around the country."

It also appears a big rethink on tactics and strategy is taking place this weekend. While yesterday Britain was dealing with the first military dead being brought back to RAF Brize Norton and Tony Blair was diplomatically active in looking ahead to a post-conflict Iraq, Washington was focusing on the shape of the war. Pentagon sources say the timing of any thrust on Baghdad is under review, as civilians and generals debate the merits of pressing ahead or being patient and awaiting reinforcements, which could take nearly a month to arrive in force.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon planners that substantially more troops would be needed to fight a war in Iraq, New Yorker Magazine will report tomorrow. The weekly said Rumsfeld insisted at least six times in the run-up to the conflict that the proposed number of ground troops be sharply reduced and got his way.

It also said Rumsfeld had overruled advice from war commander General Tommy Franks to delay the invasion until troops denied access through Turkey could be brought in by another route and miscalculated the level of Iraqi resistance.

A spokesman at the Pentagon declined to comment on the article.

In the meantime this weekend, the focus has been on "softening up" the Medina Division of the Republican Guards outside Baghdad. A US military spokesman said 30 Apache helicopters had attacked Republican Guards southwest of Baghdad, killing at least 50 troops.

British and American forces mounted one of their fiercest air assaults yet on Baghdad yesterday, targeting the centre and outskirts of the city with repeated bombings that drew Iraqi anti-aircraft fire. Several large blasts shook the city centre after dark on Saturday. Fierce attacks in the afternoon targeted outlying areas where the Republican Guard are dug in to defend the capital against advancing US-led forces. On Saturday morning, the Information Ministry was littered with debris after a missile pierced the roof of the 11-storey building.

The repeated bombings characterise a war that began as a fast- paced thrust toward the Iraqi capital but has now become a relentless grinding down of Ba'ath Party cadres, paramilitaries and the infrastructure of Saddam Hussein's regime.

But as helicopters from the 101st Airborne hammered yesterday at elite Iraqi forces, many 3rd Infantry and marine units took a break in trying to push forward and concentrated instead on securing their lines of communications and waiting for more of their comrades to catch up after heavier than expected attacks along the way.

For a Bush administration that had indicated before hostilities started that the war would not last long, any acknowledgement of a pause prompts alarm. While polls indicate that nearly three in four Americans remain unshaken in their support of Bush's war policies, despite surprises on the battlefield, the White House and the Pentagon are determined to present a picture as upbeat as possible.

And since Thursday, when Lt Gen William Wallace, commander of V Corps, irritated the White House by saying "the enemy we're fighting against is different from the one we'd war-gamed against", the Bush administration has sought to assure Americans that the war is going well and according to plan despite casualties, strong resistance and the absence of expected popular uprisings against Saddam.