Troops advance towards Baghdad
In one of the fastest penetrations of hostile territory ever recorded, the US 3rd Infantry division, 2nd Brigade covered 228 miles in less than 40 hours to take fighting positions near the halfway mark to Baghdad.
The sweeping march puts troops about 100 miles from the capital, near the town of An-Najaf, which holds some of the most sacred sites to Shiite Muslims.
More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley moved across the desert in a flanking movement that placed the 2nd Brigade, known as the Spartans, ahead of all US forces on the march to Baghdad.
Within an hour’s drive of their final stopping point, the brigade engaged dozens of civilian vehicles mounted with machine guns and fought through Saturday night until dawn today, destroying 15 vehicles, killing at least 100 Iraqi militiamen and capturing 20 prisoners of war.
The Iraqi fighters were believed to be members of the Baathist party militia, loyal to one of Saddam’s sons.
The fighting vehicles covered more ground than the entire 100 hours of ground fighting in the 1991 Gulf war. At the time, that 100 hours was considered the swiftest movement of any army.
Lt. Col. Eric Wesley, of the 2nd Brigade, had said before the operation that it would have taken six months to cover the same territory during the Second World War.
The commander of the 2nd Brigade, Col David Perkins, said: “I’m using the analogy of Hannibal taking elephants over the Alps, but instead of he Alps, there are big waddies (gullies) out there and the elephants are the tanks.”
He split the brigade in two parts. The first was codenamed Team Heavy Metal and consisted of the armoured fighting vehicles. The second team was called Rock ’n Roll and consisted of all the wheeled support vehicles.
The combat vehicles took off cross-country, weaving through the desert, avoiding cities, villages and main roads or highways to avoid being detected by Iraqi forces.
The brigade broke down into wedge of companies. Each tank or infantry company drove their vehicles in wide wedges sometimes up to six miles wide, reaching speeds of up to 40mph.
The only people the force encountered were Bedouin tribes herding sheep, goats and camels, who often stopped to stare at the armoured wave as it drove by.
With the brigade pausing only to refuel, six infantrymen were often squeezed into each Bradley fighting vehicle for up to five hours at a time.
The brigade is on the western bank of the Euphrates River on one of the main highways leading to Baghdad.
“There is a psychological component," said Col Perkins.
"If the president (Bush) can say look at your window there is a tank brigade outside, that can hasten the fall of the regime,” he said.
The advance Kiowa observation helicopters scouted the road ahead along with long range patrols on the ground.
At nightfall on Saturday, when the Brigade was reaching its objective, suspected Baathist party militiamen began chasing the patrols, causing the advance to stop 19 miles short of the planned assembly area.
The first 1st Battery, 9th Field Artillery, was called forward and provided supporting fire for the 1st Battalion 64th Armour Regiment to advance and engage the Iraqi troops.
After several hours, the 4th battalion, 64th armour regiment was called upon to take over the fight. It captured ground with little resistance at dawn today.
Najaf is the site of the tomb of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad. Shiites aspire to bury their dead in its cemetery, which stretches for miles and is the largest in the Muslim world.
