US-British troops in battle with Republican Guards

12.15pm

UPDATE - US and British invasion forces hit Iraqi Republican Guards defending the approaches to Baghdad on Monday as a humanitarian emergency began to develop in southern Iraq.

The Pentagon said US forces had advanced more than 200 miles into Iraqi territory and were beginning to confront an elite division of the Republican Guards deployed to defend the capital.

Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations for the US military's Joint Staff said: "Coalition forces have engaged Republican Guard Medina division troops with attack helicopters."

The US military acknowledged losing one helicopter. Iraqi television later showed two men it said were the crew of the downed Apache helicopter. They appeared to be in good health.

In the capital, Saddam Hussein's deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz told a news conference the Iraqi leadership was in good shape despite five days of heavy bombing.

He said Saddam, shown twice on Iraqi television on Monday, was "in full control of the army and the country" and that his enemies had underestimated his popularity.

Warnings intensified of a humanitarian crisis as fighting in the south delayed entry of much needed aid and water grew short in Iraq's second city, Basra.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent action to make sure there was enough water in Basra, a city of some two million people.

Arab nations at the United Nations decided to ask for an emergency UN Security Council meeting. The current rotating chairman of the Arab group is Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, who intends to write a letter to the council this evening requesting the meeting.

The United States has promised to begin delivering aid within a few days, as soon as it secures necessary ports and supply routes and takes control of population centers that were bypassed by invasion forces.

At least six large explosions struck Baghdad late on Monday, shaking the city and sending huge balls of fire rising into the sky, Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki reported.

US Army General Tommy Franks, the overall war commander, said his forces were intentionally skirting enemy formations in their advance on Baghdad.

"Progress toward our objectives has been rapid and in some cases dramatic," Franks said, despite 24 hours of setbacks that included the killing and capture of US soldiers and the loss of the helicopter. Franks dismissed an Iraqi report that a farmer had shot down the Apache.

The United States, backed by Britain, launched the war to oust Saddam and destroy the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs they said he had been hiding. So far, they have not found any of these weapons of mass destruction.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the British parliament that the "vital goal" was to reach the Iraqi capital as swiftly as possible.

"Coalition forces led by the American 5th Corps are on the way to Baghdad. As we speak, they are about 60 miles south of Baghdad near Kerbala," Blair said.

"It is a little way from there that they will encounter the Medina Division of the Republican Guard who are defending the route to Baghdad. This will be a crucial moment."

A US official said Bush was expected to meet Blair on Wednesday or Thursday for the first time since the start of the war.

A British soldier was killed in action on Monday as he tried to calm rioting Iraqi civilians, bringing the total British dead and missing to 19. Iraqi civilians so far have shown little enthusiasm for the invaders.

Financial markets have begun to factor in a longer war than appeared last week. In New York, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Index dropped 3.6 percent, its biggest single day loss since last Sept. 27. Oil prices and gold rose, while the dollar slipped.


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.

Although other plants were able to keep some 40 percent of the usual needs flowing, the quality was poor, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Annan said: "I think urgent measures should be taken. 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."

US forces have been advancing to the west of the Euphrates River, setting up an airfield near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Najaf to put up unmanned planes to spy on Republican Guard holding the road to Baghdad.

As Franks spoke in Qatar, US artillery opened up on targets near Nassiriya, according to a Reuters report from the scene. Reuters correspondent Andy Gray also reported fighting near Samawa, further along the road to Baghdad.

In the Kurdish-ruled north, Reuters correspondent Mike Collett-White said US soldiers were there, and Iraqi lines in the area were bombed for the first time, in signs that a second, smaller front may be opening in the war.

Saddam, shown twice on Iraqi television during the day, praised his commanders and fighters, who have stalled the US-led advance in places, and told them US, British and other invasion forces had underestimated their resolve.

"The enemy is trapped in the sacred land of Iraq ... brave fighters, hit your enemy with all your strength," he said, wearing a military uniform and reading a speech from behind a podium. "Be patient, victory is coming."

US and British officials said the message appeared to have been recorded but it was unclear how recently. Middle East experts believed the man who gave it was the Iraqi president, rather than a look-alike.

- REUTERS