US takes Saddam palace, topples statue
( 2003-04-08 07:59 ) (7 )

American troops and tanks rumbled through downtown Baghdad with unstoppable force on Monday, seizing one of Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces, toppling a 40-foot statue of the Iraqi ruler and pushing his regime to the brink of irrelevance.

Some Iraqi soldiers jumped into the Tigris River to flee the advancing column of more than 100 armored vehicles. About a dozen others were captured and placed inside a hastily erected POW pen on the grounds of the bombed-out, blue-and-gold-domed New Presidential Palace.

An estimated 600 to 1,000 Iraqi troops were killed during the operation, said Col. David Perkins. "We had a lot of suicide attackers today," he said. "These guys are going to die in droves ... They keep trying to ram the tanks with car bombs."

Tank-killing A-10 Warthogs and pilotless drones provided air cover as Americans briefly surrounded another prominent symbol of Saddam's power, the Information Ministry, as well as the city's best-known hotel, the Al-Rashid. Tanks rolled briefly up to another one of Saddam's many palaces.

It was the third straight day the Army penetrated Saddam's seat of power. This time, though, there were plans to stay. Rather than withdrawing at nightfall, as units did over the weekend, members of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division hunkered down for the night at the sprawling, splendored New Presidential Palace where Saddam once slept.

Several miles away, two soldiers and two journalists were killed in a rocket attack on the 3rd Infantry Division south of Baghdad, the US Central Command reported. Another 15 soldiers were injured in the attack on an infantry position south of the city.

On the other side of town, Marines encountered tough fighting as they entered Baghdad for the first time, coming under machine gun fire. Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy said two Marines were killed and two were injured after an artillery shell hit their armored personnel carrier.

Marines crossed into Baghdad from the east, their engineers deploying a temporary pontoon bridge over a canal at the southern edge of the city after Iraqis rendered the permanent structure unsafe for heavy, armored vehicles.

Hours later, the sound of occasional American artillery split the night air.

The regime, its brutal hold on a country of 24 million slipping away, denied all of it. "There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all," insisted Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.

The Iraqi government maintained its hold over state-run television and radio - arguably its most important remaining levers of control over the country - and broadcast emotional appeals to resist US forces. Also shown were images of Saddam meeting with key advisers.

The American military flexed its muscle in downtown Baghdad while British officials said one of the regime's most brutal leaders, Ali Hassan al-Majid, had apparently been killed in a weekend airstrike in the southern city of Basra.

A cousin of Saddam, al-Majid was dubbed "Chemical Ali" for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

Defense officials also said testing was underway on samples taken from a site where soldiers found metal drums possibly containing nerve gas or another type of chemical weapon. A local commander said it was possible the substance was a pesticide, since it was found at an agricultural site near Hindiyah, south of Baghdad.

After a two-week siege, British forces claimed control over Basra, a city of 1.3 million. Hundreds of civilians, women in chadors and barefoot children among them, poured into the street to welcome the invaders. Some handed pink carnations to the British troops in appreciation.

American and British troops advanced in Iraq as their political leaders were meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland. For President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, it was the second summit since the fighting began.

"The hostilities phase is coming to a conclusion," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. Without elaboration, he said the US government is sending a team this week to Iraq to begin laying the groundwork for an interim authority.

In the war zone, Americans felt confident enough for Gen. Tommy Franks, overall commander of Operation Iraqi Freedom, to visit troops in Najaf and elsewhere. The four-star general wore camouflaged body armor and a black beret as his Black Hawk helicopter carried him on his tour.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, said all but "a couple of dozen" of the Iraqi military's tanks had been destroyed in less than three weeks of combat.

Senior officials at the Pentagon said the Army assault into Baghdad was part of an attempt to persuade Iraqi forces that further resistance was futile. The military would like to avoid an all-out urban battle in Baghdad, with its 5 million inhabitants.

"We can basically go wherever we want, whenever we want, even if Saddam is still alive," said Perkins, who commanded the Army troops inside the city.

Missiles screamed overhead and explosions shook buildings inside the city as more than 70 Army tanks, more than 60 Bradley fighting vehicles and an estimated 3,000 troops pushed their way into the heart of Baghdad.

Iraqi snipers fired on soldiers from rooms in the al-Rashid hotel, and tanks returned fire with their main guns and .50 caliber machine guns.

Across the river from the New Presidential Palace, Iraqis took up positions around the University of Baghdad, firing heavy machine guns across the 400-yard width of the Tigris River. Americans responded with mortar fire and close air support to rout the Iraqis.

The New Presidential Palace showed the effects of recent US-led bombing. Even so, once inside, Americans found creature comforts undreamed of in a country where more than half the population is dependent on international food assistance.

Beneath the dust, the imitation French Baroque furniture was painted gold. The palace had numerous swimming pools, and troops rifled through documents and helped themselves to ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab glassware and other souvenirs of war.

The palace had been stripped of most personal items, but the building boasted a sophisticated audio-video system. Troops looking in one cabinet found a collection of pirated movies, "Les Miserables" among them.

On a parade grounds nearby, GIs cheered as a statue of Saddam on horseback was toppled.

At sundown, some troops carried a television from the palace, plugged it into a portable generator and mocked the Iraqi state-run broadcast. "That looks awfully like the Taliban to me," said one unidentified soldier, watching a segment of an old man, wearing a turban and clutching an assault rifle.

It's not clear how many Iraqis have been hurt or killed in Baghdad. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that hospitals in the city have stopped counting the number of people treated.

Americans have twice been victimized by suicide bombers, and among the newly dead was an old Iraqi man. Disoriented and alone, he moved ahead with aid of his cane despite three warning shots. "After you give the final warning shot, shoot them dead," an officer ordered. The rifleman did.