IN BAGHDAD: Still Descends on Baghdad After Raging Street Battles

April 8, 2003
By JOHN F. BURNS

BAGHDAD, Tuesday, April 8 - A still descended on the city after raging battles that lasted all morning and left the Americans in firm control of an area encompassing the principal seats of governmental power.

American forces held an area stretching upwards of a mile and a half along the western bank of the Tigris River, and inland at least a mile deep. That area contains several presidential palaces and ministries, including the Information and Planning departments, the radio and television center and the Al Rashid and Mansour hotels. The Americans also took at least one of the three bridges across the Tigris.

The day's battle lasted six or seven hours and appeared to have involved American tanks and infantry moving north from the Republican palace which the Americans seized in a raid from the airport at dawn on Monday.

Overnight these forces battled through pitched blackness, without a moon and with the city's electrical system shut down. Iraqi forces fought back from inside the palace and suicide bombers threw themselves against tanks.

At the Palestine Hotel, a thousand yards away, sounds of fire were heard and flashes from tanks were seen lighting up the gates and gardens of the palace. At dawn, the Americans moved north from the palace which lies on a bend in the Tigris up the riverbank toward the rest of the presidential compound, crossing through areas that have been heavily bombed in the past 18 days.

The toll on Iraqis appeared to have been severe, and senior Iraqi officials at the Palestine Hotel were seen clutching each other with tears rolling down their faces, whether for concern about their personal safety or about the pounding being taken by Iraqi forces could not be known. That pounding includes a devastating assault Monday that targeted Saddam Hussein and his two sons at a large residential compound in the Mansour district.

Iraqi television devoted its broadcasts through Tuesday morning, at the height of the battle in the presidential compound, to old film of Mr. Hussein being greeted by an adoring crowd accompanied by choirs singing praises to him and his sons, routine fare for Baghdad TV, and thus no firm indicator of whether the leader had survived.

The TV went off the air in the late morning after American troops pushed out of the presidential compound and made their way up a boulevard about a thousand yards further north, to the area of the Information Ministry and broadcast center.

The battle heightened as American troops reached the point where the compound abuts the Al Jumhiriya bridge, one of three midtown bridges. Bursts of fire escaped from the muzzles of Abrams tanks, and Iraqi defenders fought back with machine gun and rocket fire. American A-10 Warthog tank-buster aircraft hovered in the dense black smoke above the battle, diving every few minutes and releasing bombs on Iraqi positions.

At about 8:45 a.m., three Abrams tanks moved onto the bridge and advanced about 500 yards toward the eastern bank, halting for three hours at the first bridge support. The tanks could be seen firing shells at Iraqi targets on the bank, including a 10-story building south of the bridge, from which rifle, rocket and machine gun fire had been directed at the tanks.

Resistance from the building appeared to subside after the Americans fired about a dozen shells. The tanks later turned their barrels across the river and to the south, in the direction of Iraqi targets a mile or more away.

At this point reporters in the Sheraton Hotel adjacent to the Palestine could see an intensive battle raging along Al Rashid military airfield about five miles away; that apparently was the point of the furthest advance of American marines, who crossed a tributary of the Tigris on Monday.

In the early afternoon a shell evidently struck the Palestine Hotel, destroying a room on the 15th floor on the east side with a view to the battle that was raging across the river at the presidential compound. Five journalists in the room at the time were injured including four Reuters staff members and a Spanish television cameraman.

The wounded were carried out of the hotel and taken by car to Iraqi hospital, where their injuries were described as serious. One was a woman carried out wrapped in a bloodied sheet.

An American general, Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the Third Infantry Division, was quoted on the Reuters news wire shortly after the incident saying that an American tank had fired a single round at the hotel.

``The tank was receiving small arms fire and RPG fire from the hotel and engaged the target with one tank round,'' the general said, referring to rocket-propelled grenades.

In the hours before the strike, Iraqi fighters had taken positions in buildings adjacent to the Palestine and Sheraton hotels to fire against the Americans.

The attack led to scenes of near panic inside the Palestine Hotel, with journalists rushing down darkened stairwells to the hotel forecourt, many in flight jackets and helmets.

Some senior Iraqi officials appeared to have abandoned the hotel where they took up residence during the first 20 days of the war in an apparent attempt to find safety for themselves in a building they assumed would be immune from bombing and ground fire. Journalists tempted to leave the immediate area were ordered to remain.

Despite the ferocious fighting, some elements of normal daily life continued. Taxis painted their regulation orange and white could be seen cruising for fares, and a horse-drawn dray moved slowly down the street behind the Palestine Hotel delivering water supplies to homes and businesses.

People could be seen clustering under building eaves, seeking protection from the battle, while others dashed across the street, glancing to the battles in the north. By lunchtime, as the battle subsided, government workers appeared to check through the neighborhood for damage.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company