US MIlitary at Baghdad airport

The BBC have just reported that the US military are taking up positions around the airport, gearing up for the fight for it.

Other reports state the military are 6 miles from the outskirts of Baghdad (this would still be some 20 miles from the centre)

Having seen what crap has been reported over Basra, Umn Qasr etc you will have to make your own mind up as to the truth of this.

www.reuters.com...
(on the main page link to long)

news.bbc.co.uk...



[Edited on 3-4-2003 by cassini]

[Edited on 3-4-2003 by cassini]

From the same news source, one story says the marines are within 5 miles from Baghdad and the Iraqi's story say we aren't even within 100 miles. I think they are awfully close and are preparing to take the airport and the city within days. They reported that they found some dead Iraqi troops along the road to Baghdad and they all had gas masks, must be a reason.

"Coalition forces drove to within four miles of the Baghdad city gates. Thousands of U.S. military vehicles of the 7th Infantry pushed across the Euphrates River from the south and west of Baghdad after fighting through a failed Iraqi attempt to hold the bridge at Musayyib, 35 miles due south of the capital. The bridge had been wired with explosives, which were disarmed by U.S. engineers."

4 mile version of story here

"US forces are nowhere near Baghdad or its main airport, but remain trapped in combat with Iraqi resistance in every major town, Iraq's Information Minister Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf said.

"They are not even within 100 miles (160 kilometres), they are on the move everywhere. They are a pig moving in the desert," he said.

Iraq's version of story here

I love reading all of Iraq's views of the war.They are like a bad Saturday Night Live sketch..
One of these days Iraq minister of information is going to be telling the world how bad the U.S. is doing,when a couple of marines show and say sorry fool its time to go....

arrgghhh its so confusing. They say this we say that. The one person who is clearly lying through his teeth is the Iraqi information minister who denies things which can clearly seen to be true.

However the associated press assoc. have just said an attack on the airport is now under way. And the major news agencies are reporting that the power in Baghdad has been taken off, which seems to be confirmed by the News channels.

www.reuters.com...
(story on main page)

[Edited on 3-4-2003 by cassini]

[Edited on 3-4-2003 by cassini]

[Edited on 3-4-2003 by cassini]

According to GWBush, US troops have only got 200 yards to go.

Do you think he realises that's not true or is he just repeating what Rumsfield has told him?

As far as Iraqi news goes... pretty funny. I liked the "we destroyed 4 more apache helicopters, 8 abrams tanks, etc. etc." the other day.

That said, I wouldn't totally trust the coalition either...

journalists with video phones, reporting that they can see the skyline of Baghdad... 100 miles my arse!!!

U.S. infantry occupied part of Baghdad's airport Friday and sealed the entrance closest to the capital, fighting to seize a strategic prize as coalition forces converged on Saddam Hussein's seat of power.

Gunshots were heard from inside, and it was unclear how many Iraqi troops remained in the airport, about 10 miles southwest of central Baghdad. The capital remained without electricity or water after its first blackout of the war overnight.

www.foxnews.com...

I had also heard somewhere that they found tunnels under the airport leading in all different directions, but I haven't yet found any confirmation on this. I will continue to search, this could be a huge discovery.

This is pretty confusing. In some of this morning's papers in the U.K some reporters are saying they have been to the airport and there is nobody there at all, never mind the coalition. But that could be from last night. Who knows?

"I had also heard somewhere that they found tunnels under the airport leading in all different directions, but I haven't yet found any confirmation on this. I will continue to search, this could be a huge discovery"

Watching the news this morning they were interviewing the US colonel who was in charge and he confirmed the existence of the tunnels. Furthermore he said that they think they stretch all over the place, apparently connecting palaces and secret bunkers. It did seem however that they were already aware of these tunnels, which seems logical otherwise they could have been in some serious sh*t with iraqi soldiers popping out here there and everywhere.

"This is pretty confusing. In some of this morning's papers in the U.K some reporters are saying they have been to the airport and there is nobody there at all, never mind the coalition. But that could be from last night. Who knows?"

Kegs, Morning papers=yesterdays news, this is the way the news services were reporting it yesterday, the situation seems to have changed





[Edited on 4-4-2003 by cassini]

link to article giving mention to the tunnels

www.sky.com...

U.S. military sources told this correspondent that their forces found a network of tunnels beneath Baghdad airport, apparently stretching back to the Tigris river.

At Central Command, a U.S. commander said special forces had also raided a residence of Saddam northwest of the capital and blocked the road to his hometown of Tikrit.

asia.reuters.com...

Yes, I Know morning papers = yesterdays news, but they where reporting on yesterdays claims about the airport. The reports would be in about 10 at night, so they wouldn't be that old.
Already today I've seen claims 'we've got the airport' then 'we've got 80% of the airport' and now a U.S general is saying 'we have the airport. it's ours' all on the same news site. It just reinforces the fact that you can't take anything about this war at face value.
Especially what comes out of the press.