DAY 3 OF US WAR ON IRAQ
Saturday, 22 March 2003
IRAQ WAR COULD LAST LONGER THAN PLANNED - BUSH
WASHINGTON, March 22 (AFP) - The war in Iraq could last longer than planned and the installation of a democratic government there will require a long-term commitment, President George W. Bush said Saturday.
"A campaign on harsh terrain in a vast country could be longer and more difficult than some have predicted," Bush said in his weekly radio address to the nation.
"And helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and free country will require our sustained commitment. Yet, whatever is required of us, we will carry out all the duties we have accepted.
"Our nation entered this conflict reluctantly, yet with a clear and firm purpose," said Bush. "The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.
"Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. This will not be a campaign of half-measures," said the president.
"It is a fight for the security of our nation and the peace of the world, and we will accept no outcome but victory.
"Our cause is just, the security of the nations we serve and the peace of the world," said Bush. "And our mission is clear, to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people."
He reiterated that Saddam's regime has "no regard for the conventions of war or rules of morality. Iraqi officials have placed troops and equipment in civilian areas, attempting to use innocent men, women and children as shields for the dictator's army.
"I want Americans and all the world to know that coalition forces will make every effort to spare innocent civilians from harm," said Bush.
207 CIVILIANS WOUNDED IN BAGHDAD BOMBING BLITZ: IRAQ
BAGHDAD, March 22 (AFP) - The massive British and US bombing blitz on Baghdad Friday night wounded 207 civilians, most of them women and children, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said.
The casualties, who were being cared for in five different hospitals around the capital, were "hit in their homes", Sahhaf told a news conference Saturday morning.
"I invite you to visit them and ask them how and where they were hurt," he said, maintaining Iraq's rejection of the coalition's insistence it is striking only the regime and the military.
WORKERS CLEAR RUBBLE IN BAGHDAD AFTER OVERNIGHT BLITZ
BAGHDAD, March 22 (AFP) - Workers were clearing rubble from the streets of Baghdad early Saturday after an overnight US-British bombing blitz on key sites of the regime of President Saddam Hussein.
Smoke was still billowing from a main building of the Republican Palace compound, the symbol of Saddam's iron grip on Iraq since 1979, which extends along the bank of the Tigris river.
Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said during the night that the building was a guest house. He also said another former royal palace in a southern suburb close to the capital's international airport had been left in ruins.
But AFP correspondents in Baghdad said the guest palace is located inside the presidential compound while the Az-Zuhur ("Flowers") palace lies in a southern suburb close to the capital's international airport.
Glass was not broken in nearby official buildings, whose windows are apparently bullet-proof, but the powerful bombings by cruise missiles shattered the windows of homes on the other side of the river.
On the main avenue past the foreign ministry in central Baghdad, workers were removing rubble blown off from a building believed to be the headquarters of security services.
Access was difficult on the avenue, as vehicles were forced to slow down to drive carefully over the fallen materials.
Other targets included the headquarters of the airforce command and the elite Special Republican Guards, headed by Saddam's son and heir apparent Qusay.
The missiles also struck the al-Taji military facility, north of the capital, according to witnesses.
Early Saturday, Sahhaf said the massive British and US bombing campaign on Baghdad overnight wounded 207 civilians, most of them women and children, as part of a war launched Thursday at dawn to oust Saddam's regime.
IRAQ SAYS HEAVY LOSSES INFLICTED ON US, BRITISH TROOPS IN SOUTH
BAGHDAD, March 22 (AFP) - The Iraqi military has inflicted "heavy losses" on US and British troops while repelling attacks in southern Iraq, Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said Saturday.
"Our forces remain in their positions" in Umm Qasr, he told a press conference in Baghdad, contradicting reports that Iraq's sole significant deep-sea port had been captured by coalition forces.
"Heavy clashes continued all night and this morning. We inflicted heavy losses on them," Sahhaf said.
The minister also denied the fall to British forces of the oil-rich Fao peninsula.
"They managed to establish themselves in a small part but our forces have not withdrawn and intense clashes are continuing."
Sahhaf denounced as fabricated footage of Iraqi troops surrendering on the peninsula.
"They're liars. They kidnapped civilian residents of Fao to pass them off as surrendering soldiers," he charged.
INFERNO IN BAGHDAD AS US UNLEASHES MASSIVE AIR ASSAULT
BAGHDAD, March 22 (AFP) - Baghdad was kept awake well into the early hours of Saturday as the US military pounded the city with waves of air strikes that turned vast sections of Saddam Hussein's capital into an inferno.
Countless bombs and missiles smashed into targets across this ancient city, sending towers of flame and smoke into the skies above as the US began the "shock and awe" assault it had been threatening to topple Saddam from power.
Saddam's Republican Palace, symbol of his iron grip on Iraq since 1979, lay in flames.
"The regime is starting to lose control of their country," US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington. "What is taking place today is as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed."
Although no deaths were reported, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said the blitz had wounded 207 civilians, most of them women and children.
He told a news conference that the casualties, who were being cared for in five hospitals around the capital, had all been injured in their homes.
Ambulances wailed through the streets while Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners fired back against the ferocious onslaught, on day two of a war the United States and Britain will not conclude until Saddam's 24-year reign is brought to an end.
The explosions were too numerous and too fast to count. A US defense source said US and British air forces flew 1,000 strike sorties and fired 1,000 cruise missiles across Iraq on Friday.
At dawn, Baghdad was struck with a fresh round of heavy bombardment after a night of explosions.
Rumsfeld called it "a humane effort to do what is necessary to reduce this threat against our country and that region and to eliminate a regime that has killed hundreds of thousands of human beings."
He said the goal was "to end the regime of Saddam Hussein by striking with force on a scope and scale that makes clear to Iraqis that he and his regime are finished."
Air raid sirens gave residents just a few moments warning before the first missiles slammed into the city around 9:00 p.m. (1800 GMT). Satellite television brought the fearsome assault live to viewers around the globe.
Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmad was holding a press conference in the centre of the city when the room was shaken by an intense wave of explosions whose roar nearly drowned him out.
But the defiant minister vowed: "No force in the world will conquer us because we are defending our country, our principles and our religion. We are, no doubt, the victors."
It was the first time since the war began that AFP reporters in the Iraqi capital had been able to see US fighter planes flying over Baghdad.
After what had been a relatively calm weekly day of rest, with children playing football in the streets and their elders shopping for essentials, the first missiles crashed into this city of five million anxious residents.
More than five hours later missiles were heard landing on the outskirts of Baghdad early Saturday, shortly after air raid sirens went off in the Iraqi capital, according to the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
The information minister, speaking earlier on Al-Jazeera, said a guest palace and a former royal residence had been left in ruins.
"This criminal (ordered) the destruction of the Az-Zuhur ("Flowers") palace, a former royal residence turned museum ... and the guest palace, dubbed Peace Palace," he said, referring to Rumsfeld.
Saddam has scorned US calls for him to evacuate, and his government had announced earlier Friday that it would award cash prizes to Iraqis who managed to capture US soldiers or shoot down their aircraft.
But on a day when US and British invasion forces were making their way through southern Iraq, taking hundreds of Iraqi soldiers prisoners in the push toward Baghdad, the United States made no secret of its aerial firepower.
"The weapons that are being used today have a degree of precision that no one ever dreamt of in a prior conflict," said Rumsfeld.
US WARPLANES HAVE STARTED USING TURKISH AIRSPACE
ANKARA, March 22 (AFP) - A "great many" US warplanes have been flying through Turkish airspace since it was opened to the United States late Friday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.
The agency did not specify how many planes had transited through Turkish airspace or at what time.
Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul late Friday announced the opening of the airspace, 24 hours after parliament had approved the move, and just minutes after US Secretary of State Colin Powell had phoned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"It has been determined that it is in Turkey's interests to open Turkish airspace," Gonul said on Turkish television.
IRAQ DENIES SOUTHERN DIVISION SURRENDER
BAGHDAD, March 22 (AFP) - An Iraqi army spokesman denied Saturday the surrender of the 51st mechanized division to US-led coalition forces in southern Iraq.
Russia against seeking UN approval for Iraq war: Ivanov
MOSCOW, March 22 (AFP) - Russia would oppose plans to seek retroactive approval from the UN Security Council for the US-led war in Iraq, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Saturday.
"Without a doubt, there will be attempts to find a way to confer legitimacy on military operations or post-war reorganization in Iraq through the UN Security Council," Ivanov said.
"We, of course, will not give this military action legitimacy through possible Security Council resolutions," he said.
On Friday, Ivanov said Russia and other countries would ask the United Nations to rule on whether the United States had violated international law by launching war on Iraq.
Russia, along with France and Germany, led efforts to avoid war in Iraq, arguing that the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could be disarmed of weapons of mass destruction through increased inspections and diplomacy.
"If the United States does not go to the Security Council, their troops will become occupying troops," Ivanov told a meeting of defense and foreign policy advisors.
"They will go to the Security Council the first chance they get to legitimize their presence in Iraq," he said.
"We must defend our interests so that contracts signed under Saddam Hussein are not cancelled and presented as null and void," he said.
Russian oil companies have invested more than one billion dollars (euros) in the Iraqi oil industry since 1996 and have insisted that their oil contracts, as well as massive Soviet-era debt, be honored by Iraq after the probable fall of Saddam's regime.
US TO ALLOW OPPOSITION TO RULE AFTER FALL OF SADDAM: MAIN SHIITE GROUP
TEHRAN, March 22 (AFP) - The United States will allow the opposition to rule Iraq after Saddam Hussein is deposed rather than installing a US military administration, the main Shiite Muslim opposition group said here Saturday.
US representative Zalmay Khalilzad announced the change of plan at a meeting in the Turkish capital on Wednesday, Abdulaziz Hakim, deputy head of the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), told AFP.
"Mr. Khalilzad told us of the new US position in Ankara during a meeting four days ago," Hakim said.
Washington had previously said that it would install a military administration, at least temporarily, after Saddam's fall.
IRAN SAYS ITS TERRITORY HIT BY TWO COALITION ROCKETS
TEHRAN, March 22 (AFP) - Iran has been hit by two coalition rockets, an Iranian commander told the official IRNA news agency Saturday, adding that British and US warplanes had again violated Iranian air space in the Abadan area.
The rockets hit the Meniouhi region, on the shores of the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway which separates Iraq from Iran, the news agency said without saying when.
On Friday, state television said a bomb dropped by a US aircraft had wounded two people in the port of Abadan.
Coalition warplanes had violated Iranian air space at least three times since Friday, IRNA said.
MILLIONS OF BIRDS COULD DIE IN IRAQI WAR
JOHANNESBURG, March 22 (AFP) - More than a million South African birds could find themselves in the dangerous Iraqi warfront when they head north for the winter, a media report said here on Saturday.
The Johannesburg-based Saturday Star said the birds, which are accumulating fat as fuel for their long journey, will be flying through Iraq from now until May, before fanning out to their breeding grounds in Asia.
Les Underhill of the University of Cape Town's avain demography unit said the South African bird ringing unit recovered two birds ringed in South Africa in Iraq.
Underhill said a steppe buzzard, ringed near Bredasdorp would have been on its way to its breeding grounds in southern Asia.
"The other was a curlew sandpiper, ringed at Langebaan lagoon, which would have been about halfway to its breeding grounds, which lie in the northeast edge of the Taimyr Peninsula, in the tundra of Siberia."
Underhill said these two recoveries were representative of millions of birds which migrated through Iraq and the Middle East.
He said the bird ringing unit database contained hundreds more recoveries of birds in this general area ringed in South Africa.
Underhill said the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 and the 1990-1991 Gulf War were destructive of bird habitat.
"One of the main battlegrounds of the Iran-Iraq War was of the Mesopotamian marshes, one of the most important bird areas of the Middle East. Vast areas of reedbeds were burnt and wetlands were drained."
Migration was not a continuous route along which birds could feed.
"People should rather picture a series of stepping stones which are linked by 'hops' of varying lengths. The destruction of one critical refuelling site leads to the loss of a migration route and the loss of a population breeding in one area of the world and migrating to another."
ANTI-WAR MARCHERS RETURN TO LONDON STREETS, TARGET B-52 BASE
LONDON, March 22 (AFP) - Opponents of war on Iraq were returning to the streets of London by the thousands on Saturday, in the British capital's biggest peace march since the US-led invasion began.
The Stop the War Coalition said it was expecting a "substantial demonstration," if not as big as the million-strong march -- the biggest ever seen in London in recent memory -- last February 15.
Like that demonstration, Saturday's protest was to involve two streams -- one from the University of London in the Bloomsbury district, the other at Embankment on the River Thames -- converging at Picadilly Circus.
The marchers were then to proceed to Hyde Park for a full afternoon of speeches.
In Gloucestershire, in the west of England, several thousand more protesters were expected outside the RAF Fairford base, where 14 US air force B-52 bombers are positioned.
Three of the long-range bombers were seen flying out of Fairford on Friday at midday, and were thought to have been involved in the evening aerial onslaught on Baghdad.
Campaigners were being asked to bring wreaths to lay at the base for "the death of our democracy and for all the victims of the biggest preventable tragedy in history."
Gloucestershire police said they expected between 3,000 and 5,000 people to attend the event.
More than 3,000 police were being deployed to keep order during the London march, though previous anti-war demonstrations have gone off without serious incident.
In Parliament Square, where 2,000 protesters gathered Thursday during the first hours of the war, a black statue of Britain's World War II leader Winston Churchill was seen boarded up.
Saturday's march was being co-organized by the Stop the War Coalition, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and the Muslim Council of Britain.
CND chair Carol Naughton said: "The worldwide outrage over this war has meant that we have not seen the expected massive bombardment of Iraq."
"If we had seen on our television screens whole cities alight, along with huge numbers of civilian deaths, there would have been uproar all over the world," she said.
"It is now vital that people keep protesting to keep up the pressure on our government. We now hope and pray that this war is over as soon as possible."
SAUDI MEDIA SLAMS "HANDFUL OF MANIACS" IN WASHINGTON
RIYADH, March 22 (AFP) - Saudi newspapers hit out Saturday at a "handful of maniacs" in the United States and Britain for ordering a war of destruction against Iraq.
"The world is following the war which would not have been launched had not a handful of maniacs mastered the force and believed it is the only means to resolve disputes between nations," said Al-Jazirah daily.
"When human madness combines with oppressive power, the result will be oppression, destruction and bloodshed everywhere," the daily said.
"The ongoing war against Arab lands in Iraq ... represents a flagrant aggression against an independent Arab country," it added.
The paper warned that the outcome of the war will not only harm the interests of Iraq and Arabs, but will touch everyone including Americans and British themselves.
Al-Riyadh newspaper warned "Baghdad could turn into a new Stalingrad" in resisting the invading forces.
Okaz daily cautioned the Americans and British against exceeding the declared goals of the war of toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein and disarming Iraq.
"The US administration must assure the world that it wants the good of the states of the region and not the contrary," said the daily, and added that available indications do not suggest this.
"Certainly, the raging war could lead the region to a catastrophe, and catastrophes normally do not help, but rather lead to destruction and instability," the paper said.
IRAQI RESISTANCE STILL REPORTED IN UMM QASR
AS-SALIYAH, March 22 (AFP) - British forces controlled most of the strategic southern port of Umm Qasr on Saturday but Iraqi troops were still putting up a fight in some areas, a British spokesman said.
"We believe our objectives have been met" in Umm Qasr, Group Captain Al Lockwood told AFP at the command post here of the US Central Command, which is directing the war effort.
He said there is "still resistance in some parts, but the majority (of Umm Qasr) is patrolled" by British forces.
Iraq said Saturday its armed forces were resisting US and British troops in Umm Qasr and the Fao Peninsula to the east despite statements from London that the situation was under control.
Britain also said that coalition ground forces were poised to snatch the key southern city of Basra, Iraq's principal access to the sea.
Umm Qasr, located on the western side of the Fao Peninsula on a canal opening to the Gulf, had been handling vessels carrying in food and other vital necessities under the UN-administered oil-for-food program.
Lockwood called Umm Qasr "a big stepping stone in our humanitarian effort to bring supplies of food and medicine to the people of Iraq".
"We will sweep the channel very soon to check for mines and then we hope to open it for shipping to get these very, very valuable and urgently needed supplies through."
US officials said that a marine was killed Friday in fighting against Iraqi forces near Umm Qasr, the second marine to die in action in the two-day-old drive to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
SWISS PRESS WARNS AGAINST RELIEF ONCE WAR ENDS IN IRAQ
GENEVA, March 21 (AFP) - The Swiss press reacted with critical awe to images of the US and British attacks on the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday but it warned there should be no sense of relief once the fighting is over.
"Hell in Baghdad. How mainy people died here?" the tabloid Blick headlined, pointing to "pictures the world would never forget".
"War is not like these sanitised images," Le Temps cautioned in an editorial, adding that the conflict was "dragging us into a new era against our will".
"This war marks the carefully weighed and calculated wish of those that govern in the White House to upset the rules of the game in the world," the daily said, rejecting US policy as "the cynical use of power as an apparent response to blind fanaticism".
Le Temps said the succesful conclusion of military action, with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's fall from power, could bring new images of Iraqis welcoming US troops that would trigger a sense of relief.
"It could be very mistaken. If the visible effects of this war can be limited ... the reasons which lead us to reject it today will persist," the Geneva newspaper concluded.
In a full front page editorial, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) described it the invasion as "a war for disarmament and regime change" led by the United States and Britain.
"A careful and well judged dose of military violence makes their political task easier, although it will not be a walkover," the Zurich newspaper observed.
It warned against attempts to take advantage of the situation to set up a power base in the region "because it will be hard enough to build a better overall future afterwards in Iraq and the Middle East".
EUROPE MUST COUNTERBALANCE UNITED STATES: HUNGARIAN PRESS
BUDAPEST, March 22 (AFP) - Europe has realised it must build a new security system to counterbalance the United States, now that the war on Iraq has demolished the existing world order, Hungary's press said on Saturday.
"It (Europe) has admitted that world order has collapsed and Europe must build a new order from the flowers of destruction," the mass-circulation Nepszabadsag daily said.
"New type of ties with America, an EU foreign policy of merit and perhaps a powerful European military force -- these could be the factors of crisis management," it said.
"Iraq pushed Europe into the pit and Iraq will help Europe ascend from it," it said.
It added that the war "came in the worst moment because it disrupted a difficult economic recovery".
The left-wing Nepszava said European Union leaders, who held a summit in Brussels on Friday, "had to face the sad consequences of their division".
"(They) were unable to do more than find the smallest common denominator in a watered-down proposal ... on humanitarian assistance, whose wording is hazy enough to give space to various interpretations. But they refused to take a stand on the most burning issues, including whether the military action in Iraq is in compliance with international law."
The liberal Magyar Hirlap newspaper said the US invasion of Iraq in the absence of a United Nations resolution authorising war "might cut the number of dark dictatorships but is an example that military power can be abused without restrictions".
"From this moment on, any country can expect military retaliation if it fails to serve the interests of the strongest superpower. The UN could calmly dissolve and hand over its authority to US legislation," it said.
"History teaches us that the strongest can only have servants but not friends," it warned, adding, perhaps a touch ironically: "It is fortunate that the US is a democratic superpower."
MAJOR ANTI-WAR RALLIES PLANNED IN US ON SATURDAY
WASHINGTON, March 22 (AFP) - Major anti-war demonstrations and rallies are planned across the United States on Saturday as US and British forces entered the third day of their assault on Iraq.
Marchers in Washington will converge on the White House, while protests are also planned in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities around the country.
In New York, the anti-war protesters will also support civil liberties at home, United for Peace and Justice NYC said, adding: "We won't let the Bush administration use the attacks of 9/11 to justify an unprovoked and indefensible war."
Police were girding up for large protests on the weekend, especially in Washington, calling in reinforcements to help ensure the demonstrations are orderly.
Since the war began on Thursday, hundreds of anti-war rallies across the United States have swelled and intensified, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets, some paralyzing traffic and clashing with police.
But even as the antiwar movement appeared to be gaining strength, with protests held all over the country Friday, opinion polls showed support for the war was rising.
Both houses of the US Congress had by early Friday passed resolutions endorsing the war, and a Gallup-USA Today poll showed three in four Americans said they approved the war, even without explicit UN authorization for the use of force against Baghdad.
"This is always what happens in the US at the beginning of a war," said historian Peter Kusnik, a specialist on US society in times of conflict. "The Americans think it's unpatriotic at this moment not to support the troops."
In Washington, veterans opposed to the war announced a three-day "Operation Dire Distress" to be kicked off Saturday, followed Sunday by a march to the Vietnam, Korea and World War II memorials.
"While others pontificate and theorize about war, veterans know about its realities," organizers said.
"The present administration is led by men and women who chose not to go into the military and today have little understanding of war and no comprehension of its consequences," Veterans Against Iraq War said in a statement.
"For all too many of them, war is little more than an abstract exercise in geopolitics."
Also on Sunday, a rally coinciding with the Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood to honor those in the entertainment industry who have spoken out for peace, organizers said.
Speculation has been rife over whether top stars such as Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon, who have been outspoken in their opposition to the Iraq war, will voice their views at the Oscar presentations -- as about one billion people tune in around the world.
Some pro-peace celebrities including Dustin Hoffman, best actress nominee Julianne Moore, funnyman Jim Carrey and heart-throb Ben Affleck will reportedly be donning "Win Without War" badges at the Oscars.
In anti-war demonstrations on the US west coast Friday, some 220 activists were arrested in San Francisco a day after 1,400 demonstrators were detained at the start of the war.
The latest detentions, cracking down on a massive campaign of civil disobedience, coincided with a new wave of protests, including one in Los Angeles where 27 people -- including clerics -- were detained when several hundred anti-war demonstrators turned out.
Organizers of the civil disobedience campaign have said they would continue blocking intersections and bridges, shackling themselves to street furniture and creating human cordons to snarl up traffic as long as the war continues.
But police vowed to stop them from blocking the city's main thoroughfares.
In Chicago, in the US Midwest, an estimated 4,000 people took to the streets late Friday for a second consecutive night of anti-war protests.
SUPPORT FOR WAR AT RECORD HIGH IN US
WASHINGTON, March 22 (AFP) - US support for President Bush's policy in Iraq has surged now that the war has begun, according to a new New York Times/CBS poll Saturday, although pollsters also noted deep partisan divisions in Americans' view of the conflict.
The poll found that 70 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of Iraq, an increase of 19 points in 10 days, the New York Times reported.
The percentage of people who disapproved of Bush's Iraqi policy dropped 15 points, to 27 percent, during the same period, according to the daily.
While 93 percent of Republicans told the Times/CBS pollsters they approved of Bush's handling of Iraq, just 50 percent of Democrats did.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted late Thursday, one day after allied forces made their first attack on Baghdad. The poll was taken of a group of 463 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.
The Times-CBS poll results mirrored a survey published Friday by Gallup-USA Today which showed support for Bush's decision to launch war at an all-time high.
Three in four Americans in that poll said they approved the war, even without explicit UN authorization for the use of force against Baghdad.
"This is always what happens in the US at the beginning of a war," said historian Peter Kusnik, a specialist on US society in times of conflict.
"The Americans think it's unpatriotic at this moment not to support the troops," he added. "Any criticism is a sign of disloyalty with the commander in chief."
Only 15 percent of the 602 people interviewed by Gallup-USA Today said they strongly disapproved of the war to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Five percent disapproved, but not strongly.
In early February, just 34 percent approved of launching the war without UN backing. That figure rose to 47 percent last weekend.
KURDISH TROOPS UNABLE TO CONFIRM TURKISH INCURSION INTO IRAQ
KALAK, Iraq, March 22 (AFP) - A Kurdish military commander in the Zakho region, near the border with Turkey, said Saturday that as far as he was aware no Turkish troops had entered northern Iraq overnight.
Asked if he was aware of reports that around 1,000 Turkish troops had crossed into Kurdish-controlled Iraq, Wahid Bakouzi, head of the Darkar barracks and one of two commanders in the Zakho region, said: "No".
According to Turkish satellite television station CNN-Turk, the Turkish military units crossed into northern Iraq from the southeastern town of Cukurca during the night to prepare the ground for the arrival of more units.
The Turkish military declined to confirm the report.
The press service of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which controls the western part of rebel-held territory, was also unable to confirm the information.
Washington has frequently warned Turkey against unilateral military action in northern Iraq, saying any Turkish foray into the region should be under the command of the US-led coalition.
However, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said late Friday that Turkish troops would enter northern Iraq to stop any exodus of refugees towards the Turkish border and to prevent Kurdish rebels from using the area for operations against Turkish targets.
"All problems with the United States have been resolved. Turkish soldiers will go into northern Iraq," Gul told reporters on his return from Brussels where he attended an EU summit.
His comments followed Turkey's decision to open its airspace to US warplanes bound for Iraq after 24 hours of tense gamesmanship during which it sought to win approval for its own military intervention in northern Iraq.
UN ENVOY SAYS US-KOREA WAR POSSIBLE, BUT PYONGYANG WANTS TO AVOID IT
A top United Nations envoy returned from North Korea Saturday and said it was possible the United States and the Stalinist nation could go to war although Pyongyang was keen to avoid conflict.
Maurice Strong, special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, told reporters on arrival in Beijing: "There is no need for war and yet war could occur if the parties concerned cannot find a way of resolving the differences across the table diplomatically."
He noted though that North Korea and the United States wanted to avoid war.
"I know that they do wish to do this. It is simply the method of doing it that now divides them," Strong said at the Beijing airport upon returning from a four-day mission to North Korea.
Prior to leaving Pyongyang Saturday, he told China's Xinhua news agency that North Korea wants "very much" a peaceful solution to its stand-off with the United States focused on its nuclear programme.
"The message I get is that the DPRK (North Korea) wants very much a peaceful resolution, but at the same time, it must remain (maintain) its sovereignty," Strong was quoted by Xinhua saying.
North Korea wants direct talks with Washington to end the stand-off, demanding a non-aggression pact as a precondition. Washington rules out one-one-one talks until North Korea dismantles its nuclear programmes.
Strong told reporters Sunday he sensed concern from Pyongyang that North Korea could be the next target of US military action given the start of the US-led war in Iraq, but that there was a "very strong commitment" on Pyongyang's part to seek a peaceful solution.
"Fear I do not believe is in their vocabulary. Concern, yes. Real determination to seek a peaceful settlement at the same time preparation for war if necessary," Strong said.
He said there was no visible evidence of preparations for war or a heightened sense of tension in North Korea.
However he had noted among attitudes in the country a "high degree of preparedness" for any war and "a deep concern" for the perceived threat to North Korean's security and a determination to defend their security.
"But at the same time they have a very strong commitment to finding a pathway to a peaceful resolution," Strong said.
He said North Korea could take more actions deemed provocative by the international community, but which Pyongyang would consider "logical" in light of its security concerns and a sign of its determination to defend themselves.
North Korea launched a short-range anti-ship missile into the Sea of Japan on February 24 and again on March 10, sparking fears especially in Japan that it preparing to test a ballistic missile.
"It should not be surprising if they continue these actions which are often interpreted as provocative and do indeed have a provocative element, but the purposes as they describe them are simply to continue their process of preparation for conflict should conflict arise," Strong said.
He told Xinhua the Iraq war gave "new impetus" to the need to resolve the North Korea crisis peacefully.
He urged Washington and Pyongyang to hold talks as soon as possible.
"I can only say that the longer the delay, the greater the risk of escalation, the greater the risk of deepening the differences and the hostility and the hardening of attitudes," Strong said.
The visit was Strong's second since the crisis between North Korea and the United States erupted in October.
North Korea has ramped up pressure on Washington to return to talks by expelling UN inspectors, firing up a mothballed nuclear reactor, withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and test-launching the missiles.
North Korea on Friday accused the United States of massing military forces on its border to launch a preemptive strike on its nuclear facilities to coincide with the war on Iraq.
SEVEN CREWMEN KILLED IN BRITISH MILITARY HELICOPTER CRASH
Two British Royal Navy helicopters collided over international waters in the Gulf early Saturday killing all seven crewmen aboard the aircraft, a British military spokesman said here.
"I've just been informed by London that all seven crew members are dead," Royal Air Force Group Captain Al Lockwood said here at Camp As-Saliyah, the US-British command and control center directing the air and ground assault on Iraq.
The collision occurred at around 4:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) and involved two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters, a British defence ministry spokesman said earlier in London, adding that the incident was not the result of enemy action.
The accident comes only a day after eight British Royal Marines and four US airmen were killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.
The US Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter came down during deployment operations to the Fao peninsula in southern Iraq.
SADDAM GIVES ORDERS TO TREAT POWS IN ACCORDANCE WITH GENEVA CONVENTION
BAGHDAD, March 22 (AFP) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has given orders for British and US prisoners of war to be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention, Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said Saturday.
"We will strive to carry out the president's orders despite all the abominable crimes that are being committed against the Iraqi people by this international band of thugs," Sahhaf told a news conference.
The orders, which the minister said had been issued Friday, marked a sharp change in Baghad's position.
On Friday, Sahhaf had said that coalition forces were "not soldiers, they are mercenaries to which international law does not apply."
BAGHDAD "INFERNO" AMID HUNT FOR SADDAM: ITALIAN PRESS
ROME, March 22 (AFP) - Italian newspapers gave blanket coverage on Saturday to the deployment of overwhelming air power against Iraq and the "inferno" caused by missiles and bombs which pummelled Baghdad overnight.
"Bombs and missiles, inferno on Baghdad," headlined Corriere della Sera beneath a pictures of explosions and smoke over the centre of Baghdad.
Il Messaggero pointed out that the bombardment "targeting one man, Saddam, is instead hammering an entire city of five million inhabitants".
It reported that Italy was considering Washington's request for countries to no longer recognise Iraqi diplomats, while Paris and Moscow have said no.
La Repubblica highlighted the fascination the bombardment held for television viewers.
"On TV screens, maybe for the first time, war has appeared in its naked, terrible truth. We can see what a bombardments is, hear its anguishing noise," it said.
"Incoming missiles, buildings in flames, the mushroom clouds of explosions rising between slivers of flames ... all through a detached screen of a videocamera fixed on the balcony in Baghdad."
Turin daily La Stampa reported that 20,000 US and British forces had moved into Iraq from Kuwait, taking 600 prisoners during the advance. On its front page was a picture of US soldiers giving water to a captured Iraqi.
It highlighted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's criticism of France and Germany for not supporting the US-led military campaign.
"Berlin and Paris in the past few months have underestimated the determination of the US," it quotes Berlusconi as saying after the European Union summit in Brussels.
"That's how we've arrived at the impotence of the United Nations, at this crisis in the transatlantic relationship and in the EU."
ASEAN MUST GUARD AGAINST MILITANTS EXPLOITING IRAQ WAR: OFFICIAL
SINGAPORE, March 22 (AFP) - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must guard against extremists exploiting public anger over the US-led war against Iraq to radicalise the region's moderate Muslims, a senior ASEAN official said Saturday.
ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong called on the region's moderate forces to exert influence to prevent such exploitation.
"The immediate challenge for ASEAN is now to keep a close lid on the public anger in those ASEAN members that oppose the war on Iraq," Ong said in a lecture paper released here Saturday.
ASEAN should "guard against exploitation by some extremists who would take advantage of the situation to instigate anti-US/UK feelings and radicalise the moderate Muslims in our region," he said.
Ong, a former Sigaporean diplomat who took over the helm of ASEAN this year, said "all ASEAN members know" that the US-led campaign is not a war against Islam.
He said the 10-nation regional bloc should try to weather the fallout of the war despite differing positions among members supporting or opposing the attack.
There are varying positions among key ASEAN member states on the US military campaign to overthrow President Saddam Hussein and disarm him of alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Indonesia and Malaysia, both moderate Muslim states, are strongly opposed to the war, while traditional American allies the Philippines and Singapore have been named as part of the US-led coalition to disarm Iraq.
ASEAN's other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Singapore on Friday said it has made its facilities available to the United States for use during the war in Iraq as it had done in the bombing campaign in Afghanistan shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Ong said ASEAN should hasten the region's economic development and the integration of its less developed members with their more economically advanced neighbours as a long-term measure to minimise the influence of militants.
At the same time the bloc should also intensify "the presence and voice of moderate forces, especially those with religious influence, so that radical elements do not turn the multi-racial and multi-religious characteristics of ASEAN into anti-establishment advantage," he said.
Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia have arrested dozens of extremists linked to various terrorist plots to bomb American and other targets in the region.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim state, has also arrested several people linked to a massive terrorist bomb attack last year on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, both foreign tourists and Indonesians.
Many of those arrested in the four countries are believed to be members of the Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group based in Southeast Asia which is linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network.
"If you are wondering about the future of ASEAN, worrying about how ASEAN will be hurt by the ongoing war on Iraq, let me assure you that the future of ASEAN is still bright," Ong said.
"We all will be adversely affected, one way or another. This is inevitable. But I want to assure you that ASEAN leaders are on top of the situation. They have a good understanding of one another's national positions," he said.
JAPANESE PM KOIZUMI'S SAGGING POPULARITY FURTHER HIT BY IRAQ WAR
TOKYO, March 22 (AFP) - Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has seen his public support drop after declaring his support for the US-led war on Iraq, three major Japanese dailies reported Saturday.
A telephone poll by the influential daily Asahi Shimbun showed Koizumi's approval rating had dropped to 42 percent from 44 percent while the disapproval rating rose to 45 percent from 40 percent.
"The prime minister's vow to support the war on Iraq is seen likely to have turned many women away, leaving some impact," the daily said.
The poll, taken on Thursday and Friday after the first missile attacks on Baghdad, showed that 59 percent of those surveyed disapproved of the war against an approval rate of 31 percent.
The trend was also reflected in other telephone polls taken in the past two days by the leading economic daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun and the popular Mainichi Shimbun.
The Nihon Keizai said that public support for Koizumi dipped to 42 percent from 46 percent, while the disapproval rating rose to 41 percent from 35 percent.
Only 25 percent supported the war while 68 percent expressed their opposition to it, the daily said.
The Mainichi Shimbun said Koizumi's approval rating slipped to 43 percent from 45 percent, while the disapproval rating edged up to 39 percent from 36 percent.
His support for the US-led military campaign won approval from 28 percent while it was objected to by 65 percent, the Manichi said.
The Asahi surveyed 978 adults, the Nihon Keizai 1,014 and the Mainichi 1,098.
Koizumi's popularity, which soared above 80 percent when he took office 23 months ago with a platform of reform, has sagged below 50 percent in recent months as he failed to kick-start a struggling domestic economy burdened by huge bad loans at banks.
US AIR OFFENSIVE LEAVES BAGHDAD IN FLAMES, IRAQI DIVISION SURRENDERS
BAGHDAD, March 22 (AFP) - Baghdad woke up Saturday to more air raids after a night that saw hundreds of bombs and missiles rain on the capital, as US and British troops worked their way 150 kilometers (90 miles) into southern Iraq.
As the US-led coalition tried to "shock and awe" Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein into submission with an air blitz on his capital, the United States said an entire Iraqi army division had surrendered to troops.
A Pentagon official said the 51st Division, which would normally total between 8,000 and 10,000 troops, gave up en masse in the biggest surrender since US and British forces began the war to oust Saddam on Thursday.
Thousands more Iraqi soldiers were "forced to surrender" after an overnight battle with advancing US army troops in southern Iraq, Captain Andrew Valles, spokesman for the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, told AFP in southern Iraq.
US forces have been showering Iraqi troops with hundreds of thousands of propaganda leaflets urging them to give up and providing instruction on how to surrender.
The marines have taken a large swathe of southern Iraq to the west of the Euphrates River, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kuwaiti border, including the strategic four-lane Highway 8.
"Everything has gone to plan. We're on schedule for what we want to do," Lieutenant Joshua Lyons told AFP.
Britain said coalition forces had captured the strategic Fao peninsula and Umm Qasr port -- effectively cutting off Iraq's access to the sea. Baghdad, however, said early Saturday that its troops were still putting up resistance in the two areas.
Baghdad was rocked by explosions throughout the night and by major air strikes at dawn. Smoke spiralled to the sky from Friday night's bombings -- whose targets included Saddam's Republican Palace, symbol of his iron grip on Iraq since 1979.
For nearly an hour, thunderous explosions rocked the ancient city of five million people, sending fireballs and thick smoke billowing skyward and triggering earth-shaking shock waves.
A US defense source said US and British air forces flew 1,000 strike sorties and fired 1,000 cruise missiles on Iraq Friday.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Saddam's regime was "starting to lose control of their country."
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf, quoted by the Al-Jazeera Arabic television channel, said a former royal residence turned museum and a guest palace had also been destroyed.
There was no immediate word on casualties. But ambulances wailed through the streets even as the ordnance fell.
Two US marines were the first combat deaths among the invaders. Earlier Friday, a US Marine helicopter crashed, killing eight British Royal Marines and the American crew of four, in what officials said was an accident.
And early Saturday, seven servicemen were missing after two British naval helicopters were involved in a mid-air collision.
"There are believed to be no survivors," a defense ministry spokesman in London said.
Rumsfeld's Iraqi counterpart, Sultan Hashim Ahmed, defiantly told a Baghdad press conference amid the bombing that Iraq would prevail.
"No force in the world will conquer us because we are defending our country, our principles and our religion," Ahmed said, his voice sporadically drowned out by violent explosions.
But Rumsfeld warned the United States was using "striking force to make clear to Iraqis that he (Saddam) and his regime are finished."
"What is taking place today is as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed," said Rumsfeld, rejecting comparisons with the destruction of Dresden in World War II and other blitzes.
Rumsfeld called the bombing "a humane effort" to "eliminate a regime that has killed hundreds of thousands of human beings."
There was widespread speculation about the fate of Saddam, with suggestions in the US and British media that he may have been killed or at least injured in the Thursday-morning Tomahawk missile strikes that opened up the war.
"If Mr Hussein was indeed killed, the war may nearly have ended on the first night it began," the Financial Times of London said in a front-page article.
The US campaign received a boost when Turkey opened its airspace to US warplanes bound for Iraq after tense haggling in which Ankara sought US approval for its own military intervention in northern Iraq.
"It has been determined that it is in Turkey's interests to open Turkish airspace," Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said.
A report by CNN's Turkish-language service said Ankara has already 0sent 1,000 soldiers into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq late Friday, despite pleas from US officials to keep out of the territory.
Iraqi Kurds, who have held de facto autonomy since the 1991 Gulf war, have warned that they would resist any incursions by Turkey, which has long fought Kurdish separatists within its own borders.
Kurdish souces said US air power late Friday targetted Ansar al-Islam, a hardline Islamist group that Washington says is linked to al-Qaeda and which holds a tiny pocket between the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja and the Iranian border.
The sources from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Ansar positions were hit by around five missiles.
Also in northern Iraq, Al-Jazeera television said there was a raid on Mosul, and an AFP correspondent reported anti-aircraft fire around the key oil city of Kirkuk.
Washington, trying to drown out world opposition to the war, boasted it has 46 countries in a "coalition of the willing" supporting the offensive. The White House dropped Angola from the public list of coalition countries, but added Costa Rica, Palau and Panama.
But French President Jacques Chirac, a leading opponent of the war, said he would refuse to accept a US-British post-war administration of Iraq, saying the United Nations was the only body which could be responsible for reconstruction.
"France will not accept a resolution tending to legitimize the military intervention and giving the American and English belligerents powers over the administration of Iraq," he said.
Hundreds of thousands of people voiced opposition to the war in rallies across the world, burning US flags and torching effigies of President George W. Bush. In Yemen, two people died as police battled with a crowd in the tens of thousands.
While many demonstrations in Muslim countries followed weekly prayers Friday, security remained tight in expectation of more protests. The US embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia were shut Saturday as a precaution.
In a sign of anti-US feeling in the Muslim world, the Pakistani government -- a key ally in the US-led war that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001 -- said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had delayed a visit to Washington "in deference to the sentiments of the people."
CHINA URGES ITS MUSLIMS TO STAY CALM AND BACK OFFICIAL STAND ON IRAQ WAR
BEIJING, May 22 (AFP) - China on Saturday called on its Muslims to remain calm in their opposition to the US-led war on Iraq, and to have faith in the government's position on the war.
"We sincerely hope that all Muslims across the country would start from the national fundamental interests, remain cool-minded and calm, and speak out the wishes for peace and anti-war sentiments through normal and lawful channels," said Chen Guangyuan, an imam and president of the Islamic Association of China.
In an open letter issued to all Muslims in China Saturday, Chen was quoted by Xinhua news agency saying Muslims should avoid taking extreme actions on impulse that may harm social stability.
"We should do our duty and obligations to maintain social stability and unity among different ethnic groups, and promote economic growth and building a well-off society in an all-round way," he said.
Xinhua meanwhile ran a separate report saying Muslims were united behind the government in its stance against the war.
Anti-US sentiments are strong among China's 20 million Muslims.
They not only feel kinship for Muslims elsewhere in the world but have been exposed, like all Chinese, to decades of government-promoted ideology that the United States is hegemonic and a bully.
Relations between China and the United States has improved markedly in the past year, mainly due to Beijing's support for the US campaign against terrorism and much of the anti-American rhetoric has been toned down in the official media.
Chen defended the actions taken by the Chinese government so far in opposing war.
"The stances and opinions that the Chinese government has held on the Iraq issue represent the wishes of the Chinese people, including the Muslims," he said.
Beijing keeps a wary eye on its Muslims, some of whom have separatist leanings and have been linked to bombings.
ANTI-WAR STRIKE SHUTS DOWN BANGLADESH, SCATTERED PROTESTS ACROSS ASIA
DHAKA, March 22 (AFP) - A nationwide general strike called to protest the US-led war on Iraq shut down predominantly Muslim Bangladesh on Saturday and small anti-war demonstrations were held in other cities across Asia.
Some 1,500 Indonesian Muslims staged an anti-war rally in the royal city of Yogyakarta in central Java and some 500 demonstrators held a protest outside the US embassy in Bangkok, witnesses said.
Several thousand anti-war protesters took to the streets of the Australian cities of Brisbane and Hobart on Saturday in a third day of protests against Australia's participation in the war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Anti-war protests were also held in New Zealand, where some 4,000 protestors marched on the US embassy in Wellington and several thousand demonstrators held an anti-war protest in an Auckland park.
Security was tight in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka for Saturday's protest strike with police and paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles posted at key points.
Schools, shops and private offices were shut, but some banks and government offices were open, witnesses said.
A small group of protestors carrying sticks and shouting anti-US slogans gathered outside Dhaka's main Baitul Mukarram mosque, but no other demonstrations were reported. Riot police ringed the protestors.
The strike was called by left-wing parties led by the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Islamic Law Implementation Committee and other groups.
Bangladesh, the world's third largest Muslim country, has condemned the attack on Iraq and called for a peaceful resolution of the crisis through the United Nations.
In Indonesia, the world's most-populous Muslim country, some 1,500 people, mostly members of the Justice and Prosperity Party, staged an anti-war protest in Yogyakarta.
"This war is against humanity," a protest leader said. "America is not a global cop," read a poster.
Another Muslim group, Hizb ut Tahrir Indonesia, is to hold protests outside the US and British embassies later in the day. "An attack on a Muslim country is an attack on the whole Muslim world," the group said in a statement.
The Indonesian government has strongly criticised the US-led war as an illegal act of aggression. On Friday it rejected a US call for countries to sever diplomatic relations with Saddam's regime and expel Iraqi diplomats.
In Bangkok, some 500 anti-war protestors demonstrated outside the US embassy, witnesses said. They called on Thai Muslims to boycott goods from the United States and allies Britain, Israel, Spain, Australia and Italy.
"We cannot stand for the US to use military aggression against Iraq which is inferior in its economy and technology, and other Muslim countries which could be the next US target," a statement said.
Meanwhile, organisers expected more than 10,000 Thai Muslims to attend prayers for peace in mosques in Yala, one of the country's five Muslim majority southern provinces.
Protests were also held for a third day Saturday in Australia.
In Brisbane, a group of some 200 people broke away from a 3,000-strong protest rally to stage a sit-down protest in one of the eastern city's main thoroughfares.
Some 2,500 anti-war protestors took to the streets of the Tasmanian town of Hobart and a protest in Launceston, in Tasmania's north, attracted about 400 people.
In New Zealand, some 4,000 people marched on the US embassy in Wellington on Saturday, police said, and thousands of protesters gathered in Auckland's Myers Park where a rally was addressed by various speakers.
CHINESE MEDIA BLASTS US FOR ATTACK ON IRAQ
BEIJING, March 22 (AFP) - Chinese media on Saturday blasted the United States for going to war against Iraq, criticising Washington for imposing a military solution in the face of continuing international calls for peace.
The People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, published a commentary saying that soaring anti-war voices before and after the outbreak of the war have "clearly" reflected public opinions around the world.
The commentary said unlike the 1991 Gulf war, the present one lacked legitimacy since it had not been authorized by the United Nations.
"The use of force or threatened use of force to solve international disputes would only lead to serious consequences going contrary to one's wishes," the commentary said.
It charged that the United States and its allies acted in defiance and in disregard of opposition by the international community by waging a war in the face of global appeals for a peaceful settlement of the Iraq crisis.
Chinese newspapers continued to devote a large amount of newsprint to war coverage Saturday, with the Beijing Youth Daily running four pages on the war, including large photos and graphics.
The Beijing paper also reported that Chinese citizens supported China's stance against the war and its call for an immediate halt to military action so as to reach a political resolution to the Iraq crisis.
"Our government has made a lot of effort to push for a peaceful settlement of the Iraqi question," it quoted Liu Kejie, deputy director of Beijing's Islam Association as saying.
Anger against US military action is running strong among China's Muslims, some of whom consider Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein a hero.
Li Daqi, a professor at the University of Chinese Medicine, was quoted by the paper saying the Chinese government's statements opposing the war represented the voice of Chinese people.
"China should express its own voice in international affairs ... establish an image as a large nation and maintain world peace," Li said.
On Thursday, the Chinese government issued a statement soon after the Iraq war started, saying it was "seriously concerned" over the United States' military action against Iraq and called for an end to the actions.
On the streets, however, a number of Chinese people privately indicated that Beijing's stance prior to hostilities commencing was not strong enough.
Beijing is eager to preserve good relations with Washington, but is wary that public opinion towards the war and the United States might work against its US policy agenda.
It has not allowed anti-war protests, and while permitting the state-controlled media to cover the war extensively, is careful to prevent anti-war or anti-American sentiments from becoming too strong.
The People's Daily commentary, while saying the waves of anti-war protests in other countries fully reflected the ardent aspirations of the international community for peace, made no mention of the lack of protests in China.
INVESTORS CIRCLE FOR PICKINGS FROM IRAQI WAR
WASHINGTON, March 22 (AFP) - Investors circled for postwar pickings even as a curtain of US missiles fell on Baghdad, boosting expectations of a swift US victory, analysts said.
"On balance, the beginning of hostilities has removed an element of uncertainty," Salomon Smith Barney chief US economist Robert DiClemente said.
"Early successes have provided encouragement for the optimistic case of solid growth in the second half of the year."
Confidence should lift as oil prices slide and the financial markets pick up, he said.
"The process of containing geopolitical risk faces tough tests ahead in establishing and maintaining peace even if the probability of worst-case scenarios has begun to fade," however, DiClemente said.
Slumping oil prices, a rallying dollar and a surge in stocks showed fears of a protracted war evaporating, economists said.
In the past week, the dollar had advanced about three percent and Wall Street's broad Standard and Poor's 500 index had climbed three percent, said Wachovia chief economist John Silvia.
New York's oil futures contract price, which hit 39.99 dollars a barrel last month, has collapsed to less than 27 dollars.
"In our view, investors will watch very closely how the war unfolds over the coming days and weeks," Silvia said in a report.
Many investors expected a short war, but there were still slight concerns over a war getting bogged down, Silvia said.
"If the conflict ultimately is short-lived, stocks and the dollar could rally further and bond yields could rise more as the small probability of protracted conflict disappears," he said.
"On the other hand, the greenback probably would weaken and stocks likely would give up some of their recent gains if US forces become bogged down or Iraqi oil fields are seriously damaged."
Tobias Levkovich, equity strategist at Salomon Smith Barney, said investors were asking him which companies would benefit most from rebuilding in Iraq, assuming a quick war.
"To some degree, potentially repairing the Iraqi infrastructure and building up the country's production capacity over the next few years does seem to provide a much bigger opportunity than Kuwait ever did and names like Fluor and Caterpillar may trade up on this latest Iraqi fad," Levkovich said in a report.
"But we are wary of chasing such story and concept stocks unless order trends support them," he said, meaning construction group Fluor could be a better bet than its rival Caterpillar.
With battles ahead and other trouble spots likely to flare, defense stocks such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin "stand out" as good medium-term investments, Levkovich said.
Merrill Lynch analyst Byron Callan, writing a report on the eve of the war, said a conflict lasting three to four weeks may benefit an array of defense stocks.
He recommended Alliant Techsystems and United Defense as two smaller companies for investors.
Shares in defense groups General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman also may rise as a result of the war, Callan said.
"A risk for the defense sector is either that Iraqi resistance collapses in the first week of the campaign or a combination of war and occupation costs and a weaker economy pushes US federal budget deficits over four percent of GDP (gross domestic product)," he warned.
But a war lasting three to four weeks may do little extra damage to the airline industry.
"If energy prices decline in the wake of a war and consumer sentiment rises, assuming a low-cost victory scenario unfolds, then General Dynamics and Boeing should also be considered."
INVASION OF IRAQ TRIGGERS HIGH-STAKES BATTLE BETWEEN US NETWORKS
NEW YORK, March 22 (AFP) - As the war in Iraq moves into top gear, US television networks are engaged in their own high-tech struggle to deliver the images and capture the ratings upper ground.
The three major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, together with the cable news channels CNN, Fox and MSNBC, are all believed to have spent tens of million of dollars in their search for an edge over the competition.
The high stakes reflect the rewards on offer. CNN made its name in the 1991 Gulf War, which promoted the news channel from the ranks of the also-rans into a major global player.
The current conflict is shaping up to be the first real television war since the Vietnam War, in terms of actual combat footage.
Whereas the defining television image of the first Gulf War was the green-hued, nightscope shot of anti-aircraft fire and explosions over Baghdad, coverage of the Iraq invasion moved into a different league almost immediately with live footage of tanks racing across the desert.
"The 1991 war was almost entirely a reportage of press conferences, until the very, very end when reporters broke away from army rules and raced ahead to Kuwait City," said Richard Wald, a professor of journalism at Columbia University and a former president of NBC news.
This time around, reporters from the networks and cable channels have been "embedded" in specific combat units, allowing far greater access to military operations.
"In this case I think the military thought it would be a war of light casualties and swift action and they wanted witnesses there to report that," Wald said.
"If they had a different war in mind, I'm sure they might might have done differently."
Backing up the increased access are the huge developments in communications technology of the past decade, including the videophones that can transmit the live images of troop movements.
"It's a whole different ballgame," said Frank Governale, Vice President of Operations for CBS News.
"Today, nearly everything we have is digital rather than analog, and then there are the laptop editors in the field, video compression, videophones ... the list goes on," Governale said.
In 1991, a CBS "mobile unit" fit into 16 cases and weighed around 900 kilograms (2,000 pounds). Now the network can transmit full motion video from a unit packed into two cases and weighing just 150 pounds.
For the three major networks, covering the war comes with a hefty price tag.
With the launch Friday of the main US bombing campaign against Iraq, the networks switched to full-time, commercial-free coverage to capture the "shock and awe" that the Pentagon meant the attack to produce in the enemy.
In 1991, ABC, CBS and NBC lost an estimated total of 25 million dollars in the first three nights of the war and the figures will be far higher this time around.
But stinting on the costs at the expense of coverage is not really an option.
The news divisions are a flagship for all three networks and being seen to have a "bad war" could have a long-term effect on overall ratings.
The channel facing the greatest challenge is CNN, which lost its overall cable ratings leadership to Fox News more than a year ago, but still considers itself top dog when it comes to combat coverage.
"If you were CNN, you could claim a different form of programming had beaten you out in times of peace," Wald said.
"But if your strength is covering war ... and batting into your strength you still don't beat the other fella, then you've got a serious problem."
CNN attracted a peak of six million viewers during President George W. Bush's speech announcing the opening of military hostilities on Wednesday evening and averaged just over five million between 9:30 pm and 3:00 am.
Fox attracted 9.7 million viewers for the speech and averaged 5.7 million over the same period when the initial air strikes took place.
Even before the invasion was launched, the Media Research Center, a conservative group, had slammed ABC for "channelling Iraqi propaganda" and "championing France and the UN over the US."
The liberal watchdog, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), took all the broadcast and cable networks to task, saying they had ignored or played down the humanitarian impact of the war.
THOUSANDS MORE IRAQIS TAKEN PRISONER
SOUTHERN IRAQ, March 22 (AFP) - Thousands more Iraqi soldiers were taken prisoner after an overnight battle with advancing US army troops in southern Iraq, an officer said Saturday.
Captain Andrew Valles, spokesman for the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, said troops of Iraq's 11th Division gave up after the encounter near the Euphrates River.
"Thousands of Iraqis were forced to surrender," he told AFP.
US forces invading Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein have not expected much fight from Iraq's regular army, which is comprised mostly of conscripts with little reason to stay loyal to Baghdad.
Pentagon officials in Washington said earlier that a full Iraqi army division, which normally counts 8,000 to 10,000 soldiers, had surrendered in southern Iraq on Friday.
They said the commander and deputy commander of the 51st Mechanized Division had given themselves up to US Marines at an undisclosed location while their men lay down their weapons and surrendered.
The US and British troops expect the going to be tougher when they come up against Iraq's elite Republican Guard.
US EMBASSY, CONSULATES SHUT DOWN IN SAUDI ARABIA
RIYADH, March 22 (AFP) - The US embassy in Riyadh and consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran announced they were closed to the public on Saturday as a precautionary measure in light of heightened tension over the war with Iraq.
"The embassy and consulates will be closed to the public at least for one day, Saturday, March 22, except for emergency services for American citizens," the embassy said in a statement.
Mission dependants will remain at home for at least one day while mission school age children will not attend school, the statement added.
It said the measures have been taken to "allow us to assess the security situation," in Saudi Arabia.
The embassy and consulates will continue "to provide after-hours emergency services to American citizens in Saudi Arabia," it added.
The statement also warned American citizens that "the current hostilities may disrupt commercial air service temporarily.
"Depending on the international air carriers' and insurers' assessment of the risks of flying commercial aircraft into and out of the kingdom, this disruption may last up to several weeks."
The US and British embassies Thursday advised their nationals to increase personal security and remain vigilant after the start of the war on Iraq, but did not ask them to leave.
The US embassy on Wednesday advised Americans to book seats on flights out as a precaution.
About 30,000 to 40,000 Americans and around 30,000 Britons live and work in Saudi Arabia, many in the oil-rich Eastern Province around Dhahran.
The number of US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia has doubled to more than 10,000 in the buildup to war, but Riyadh has repeatedly said it would not take part in military action against Iraq.
US OFFICIALS IN SECRET TALKS WITH IRAQI COMMANDERS: REPORT
US military and intelligence officers are engaged in secret contacts with some Iraqi commanders seeking to isolate President Saddam Hussein within his inner circle, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
"There are lots of people, all trying to give the Iraqi commanders options and ways to end the resistance," one senior US official reportedly told the Post.
They have reportedly designated buildings in Baghdad where defectors will be safe from US air strikes, the Post quoted senior US officials as saying.
While the US operatives have obtained assurances from some Iraqi commanders that they will not fire chemical weapons at US ground forces, a Republican Guard unit outside Baghdad is believed to have been issued artillery shells filled with chemical agents, the report added.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said US-led forces unleashed their so-called "shock and awe" attack on Baghdad late Friday only after the administration failed to determine whether Saddam survived a surgical strike on Thursday and it was evident he was not going to quit Iraq.
US officials believe Saddam is losing his iron grip and see him as vulnerable to attack either because of intercepted communications or spies in his inner circle, a message the first strikes were also intended to convey.
US intelligence has reported a marked decline in communications between the senior leadership and military commanders.
PAKISTANI PM POSTPONES US VISIT DUE TO 'PUBLIC SENTIMENT' TOWARDS IRAQ WAR
ISLAMABAD, March 22 (AFP) - Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali postponed his official visit to the United States scheduled for next week because of domestic opposition to the Iraq conflict officials said Saturday.
"In deference to the sentiments of the people, the Prime Minister has decided to postpone his visit to United States," a government spokesman told AFP.
The visit will be rescheduled through mutual consultation, spokesman Akram Shaheedi said.
US officials in Washington earlier gave no explanation for the postponement, saying only that US President George Bush "looks forward to rescheduling" the Pakistani leader's visit at the earliest mutual convenience.
Earlier an official announcement said Pakistan National Day military Parade in Islamabad on Sunday has also been cancelled, along with the upcoming South Asian Games, in view of the "sad and tragic developments in Iraq and the deep anguish caused to the people of Pakistan."
A foreign ministry official said Jamali's March 24-26 visit to China would, however, go ahead as scheduled.
Pakistan, a current member of the United Nations Security Council, has been placed in a highly delicate position by the Iraq crisis, torn between support for its US anti-terror ally and a recognition of firm opposition to war at home.
Official sources said that the postponement of the Washington visit had been made by mutual agreement.
A source close to Jamali said it was not possible for the Prime Minister to undertake the visit at a time when bombs were raining on Iraqi cities and there was sweeping anger among the largely Islamic population of Pakistan.
UBIQUITOUS SADDAM NOWHERE TO BE FOUND
DUBAI, March 22 (AFP) - Saddam Hussein is everywhere in Iraq, beaming out from street corners and offices, newspapers and television screens, but he is also nowhere to be found, as his people can bear witness.
US and British intelligence trying to locate the Iraqi president, let alone determine if he has been wounded or even killed, face a foe who is a past master at deception.
Stories of multiple doubles, deep underground bunkers, decoy convoys and the like swirl around the Iraqi leader who has developed a legendary paranoia with personal security.
Given past reports of numerous coup attempts, the brutal violence of the Baath regime, and previous US efforts to target Saddam, his fears may be justified.
The snap bid to "decapitate" Saddam and his high command precipitated rather than prevented Gulf War II on Thursday.
An anonymous British offical told the BBC he was dead, but US officials now seem to be groping in the dark again.
Hopes that surgicial Tomahawk missile strikes at least injured Saddam receded after a series of statements from senior Iraqi officials that the president and his family had again escaped.
Repeated television footage of Saddam and statements attributed to him promising "victory" and urging Iraqis to resist to the death did nothing to help the US case, even if they are far from convincing evidence of his survival.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the "shock and awe" attack on Baghdad only began Friday night after the administration failed to find out whether Saddam was alive and it was evident he was not going to quit Iraq.
US officials still believe Saddam is losing his iron grip and see him as vulnerable to attack either because of intercepted communications or spies in his inner circle, a message the first strikes were also intended to convey.
US intelligence has reported a marked decline in communications between the senior leadership and military commanders.
After the first firestorm, the question of Saddam's whereabouts remains at the centre of the conflict as the United States conceded there was "no concrete evidence".
Paradoxically, a huge personality cult in Iraq has raised Saddam to the status of everyman -- his smiling portrait dressed as a judge, a tourist, a soldier or of course a benign president, stares down everywhere across the country.
Yet the only time Iraqis get to see their "great leader" move is in regular television footage from meetings with senior aides. Where or when such tape is recorded is never revealed.
After becoming famous for unnannounced visits to his people, including simple villagers, public appearances have become increasingly rare -- the last was in January 2001 -- and he has not travelled abroad since before the 1991 Gulf war.
The 2001 appearance at a huge military parade in Baghdad saw Saddam fire off a shotgun held in one hand, defying rumours he was riddled with cancer and dying.
It nonetheless moved elements of the Iraqi opposition to claim Saddaam had over-exerted hismelf, suffered a stoke and died.
The elusiveness of Saddam not only frustrates US and British military brass, his own people never know whether he will turn up or not.
Foreign correspondents have for years played cat and mouse looking for Saddam once every year on his birthday, April 28, when officials suggest he will appear in public.
Information ministry officials rally the massed ranks of the press, not to mention the diplomatic corps, to various sites nationwide for the lavish celebrations.
With only a month to go to his 66th birthday, the chances of a sighting this year are looking increasingly slim.
AL-JAZEERA BATTLES UAE-BASED TV CHANNELS TO BRING ARABS BEST WAR COVERAGE
DUBAI, March 22 (AFP) - With the outbreak of war in Iraq two Arab satellite news channels are battling with Al-Jazeera to provide the best coverage of the conflict and win the hearts of some 300 million viewers.
Qatar's Al-Jazeera, which found fame for its impressive coverage of US operations in Afghanistan in late 2001, is now sharing the Arab news terrain with Abu Dhabi channel and with one-month-old Al-Arabiya.
With exclusive interviews, sometimes shocking images, and live reporting from all four corners of the world, all three channels are vying to attract Arab viewers, who since Al-Jazeera appeared in 1996 have turned away en masse from their much duller national networks.
All three are airing interviews with military analysts to inform viewers of the strategies of the key players in this new Gulf conflict, as well as closely following troops movements and developments.
But each channel has its own special strengths.
Abu Dhabi has carved out a niche for itself in southern Iraq, where on Friday it aired several live reports and shots from Umm Qasr as US and British helicopters deployed vehicles and troops near the port town before seizing it.
Prior to the conflict, the UAE-based channel launched a special "war studio" program dedicated to the hostilities, and is closely following allied troops movements into Iraq.
Al-Jazeera is meanwhile leading the field with live reports from Baghdad and especially from Mosul in the north. It has also strong coverage in northern Iraq's Kurdish region, which could see a Turkish military intervention from the north.
The news giant, which revolutionized the concept of free speech in the Arab world, appears to have the favor of Iraqi authorities, allowing it a freedom of movement unavailable to its rivals.
But it cannot closely follow US troops movements into Iraq because of a ban slapped on the channel in Kuwait.
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya, launched just over a month ago, is presenting itself as a "wise and balanced alternative" to maverick Al-Jazeera, which has offended virtually every regime in the Middle East by taking political taboos and other issues head on.
The more measured tone of Al-Arabiya may give it an edge in winning viewers in Kuwait and among those in the Arab world who find Al-Jazeera somewhat sensationalist.
Ali al-Hedeithy, head of the Middle East News (MEN) company which operates Al-Arabiya, said in February the channel would "offer Arab viewers an alternative, covering news far from any deliberate provocation."
Arab satellite news channels have come far in the decade since the 1991 Gulf War, when the American CNN network dominated war coverage.
Their popularity among Arab viewers is due to the quality of coverage but also, more essentially, because they are free of the censorship and official views imposed on the majority of national news networks in Arab states.
Since early Thursday, the start of the weekend in the Arab world and when US-led air strikes began in Iraq, Arabs around the Middle East have sat it out in front of their television sets following a war which they overwhelmingly oppose.
Abdel Bari Atwan, chief editor of the London-based Al-Qods Al-Arabi newspaper and a regular on Al-Jazeera, neatly summed up Arab sentiment.
"Baghdad is burning and our brother Arabs shift from one channel to another searching for the most terrible images, those that best express the crime of George W. Bush."
COKE LOSES FIZZ FOR THAILAND'S ANTI-US ACTIVISTS: REPORT
BANGKOK, March 22 (AFP) - Softdrink giant Coca Cola has become the first casualty of sorts in Thailand in a boycott against US products, but it was a Thai-owned bottler which suffered from the sentiment, a report said Saturday.
Coke's southern Thai bottler Haad Thip Plc, which serves 14 provinces and had sales of 1.6 billion baht (37.3 million dollars) last year, said it had temporarily shut its plant in Yala province in response to an aggressive boycott campaign in response to the US-led war on Iraq.
"We heard (the protesters') voices and respect their feelings," Haad Thip's managing director Phairoch Rattakul told the Bangkok Post.
"We will not open our warehouse until they understand that we are not an American-owned company."
Supplies of Coke as well as Fanta and Sprite were expected to evaporate in the southern region as a result of the closure.
Religious and civic leaders in Thailand, particularly in the south which is home to some 2.5 million Muslims, have called for a boycott of products from the United States and allies including Britain and Israel.
Thai media this week showed groups of Muslim youths emptying bottles of Coke and Pepsi in Bangkok and southern towns.
Coca Cola's Thai unit, which has seven plants nationwide and employs more than 11,000 Thais, reportedly released a statement saying the company "stays neutral and does not support political/religious causes".
Haad Thip's main southern rival Serm Suk Plc, which bottles Pepsi, said there had been no change in its Yala operations and did not foresee any need for action, the paper said.
Haad Thip could not be reached for comment.
MARINES SECURE WESTERN FLANK, SAY CAMPAIGN ON SCHEDULE
SOUTHERN IRAQ, March 22 (AFP) - US Marines on Saturday secured the western flank of the front line in the invasion of Iraq with officers saying their strategy is on schedule.
Marines have taken a large swathe of southern Iraq to the west of the Euphrates River, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kuwaiti border.
This includes the strategic highway 8, a major four-lane access route, as well as its side roads.
"Everything has gone to plan. We're on schedule for what we want to do," Lieutenant Joshua Lyons told AFP.
He said the force consisted of different elements from the Marines, including Regimental Combat Team One.
He said that the troops had encountered little resistance and taken many prisoners.
At one camp, four prisoners who appeared to be Iraqi soldiers were faced down in the dust under Marine guard while groups of other Iraqis were being escorted along the road toward the camp.
"That's four less Iraqis we have to be worried about and from what we're hearing there are plenty more coming in," Lyons said.
Tens of thousands of US and British troops have poured into Iraq from the Kuwait border, pushing north toward Baghdad with the aim of unseating President Saddam Hussein.
BRITISH PRESS FOCUSES ON FATE OF SADDAM
LONDON, March 22 (AFP) - British newspapers speculated Saturday on the fate of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein following US reports that he may have been killed or wounded in the first US airstrikes of the war against Baghdad.
"If Mr Hussein was indeed killed, the war may nearly have ended on the first night it began," the Financial Times said in a front-page article.
It said if the rumors of his death are true "the US can hope that Iraqi resistance might crumble entirely."
"The Saddam conundrum: Was he killed in first raid on Baghdad?" asked The Independent, which said the answer "may decide the course of the war against Iraq."
The daily also said that if the information on which Thursday's pre-dawn raid was based came from a person on the ground and not only from electronic surveillance and eavesdroping, then the CIA must have an informer among Saddam's entourage, "a feat it has never managed before."
US Defense Secretary Donald "Rumsfeld 'does not know' if dictator is wounded", headlined The Daily Telegraph.
"Is he dead?" asked the tabloid The Sun, while the Daily Mail said "speculation was growing last night that Saddam may have been killed."
ABC television in the United States said Saddam may have been injured in Thursday's US bombing raid on his compound.
Saddam and his sons were believed to be in a residential compound that was struck by F-117 stealth fighters and sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to US intelligence.
Witnesses saw Saddam being carried away from the wreckage of the compound with an oxygen mask over his face, according to intelligence sources quoted by ABC.
But Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf said Saddam, who was seen in a television broadcast just after the raid, and his family had survived a strike on one of their homes.
BRITISH BOMBER PILOTS "AWED" AT BAGHDAD ABLAZE
ALI SALEM AIR BASE, Kuwait, March 22 (AFP) - British air force pilots spoke Saturday of their "awe" at the aerial view of Baghdad ablaze, but also of the level of resistance Iraq put up.
"Baghdad was ablaze," said Wing Commander Derek Watson after returning safely to this desert base.
"There were explosions going off every few seconds," said Watson, who led his squadron into enemy fire and delivered Air Launched Anti Radiation Missiles (ALARM) to take out Baghdad's integrated air defence systems opening the way for bombers to target Saddam Hussein and his regime.
"We had anti-aircraft fire to one side and multiple rocket launchers were used against us, putting up about eight to 10 missiles.
"We could see them but they were never a threat," he added.
The British Tornado squadron paved the way for the massive aerial bombardment of Baghdad.
"We set off with a full payload of ALARMS and we saw them all go," he said.
Baghdad was already under a huge missile attack when the Tornadoes arrived and far more followed.
"When we got up we had to fly through a wall of coalition aircraft waiting to go in behind us," said the 39-year-old.
"It was in some ways the most dangerous part. There was so much up there. I have never seen anything like it," admitted the wing commander.
"When we approached Baghdad it was a red glow on the horizon. The missiles were already doing their work.
"But the Iraqis were still firing back. It is not over yet."
All of Watson's IX(B) squadron returned safely, as did the Tornado aircraft of 617 squadron (The Dam Busters), which were flying a separate and unspecified mission.
His navigator, Squadron Leader James Linter, added: "They talked about the attack on Baghdad being shocking and awesome, and that is what it was.
"I would not have wanted to be on the receiving end."
Despite the rapid push north into Iraq on the ground, Iraqi troops were still able to put missiles into the air Friday night, one causing a full scale chemical alert at Ali Al Salem base.
All personnel, including the recently returned Tornado crews, had to dive for cover in bunkers.
It emerged that an Al Samoud missile had fallen safely in the surrounding desert.
Earlier in the day Patriot missiles were launched to destroy several other Iraqi missiles aimed towards the base, plumes of smoke clearly visible in the sky overhead.
In Washington, a US defence official said coalition air forces flew 1,000 strike sorties and fired 1,000 cruise missiles at Iraq on Friday in a barrage of firepower.
Regime command and control, security and leadership installations were targeted as well as sites related to weapons of mass destruction and the integrated air defense system, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"They flew from 30 air bases in a dozen countries and five carriers," said the official.
MISSILE SCARE FOR AIRCREW PROWLING BAGHDAD'S SKIES
ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK, March 22 (AFP) - "Missile in the air!"
Lieutenant Silas Bouyer called that warning to his fellow crewmen over Baghdad Friday night when he spotted an Iraqi surface-to-air missile in the distance.
Bouyer, 26, along with a pilot and two radar jamming officers, had flown to the Iraqi capital ahead of a massive attack on the city by hundreds of cruise missiles.
Aboard an EA-6B Prowler based on this aircraft carrier, they went in to jam Iraqi radars and pave the way for Tomahawks and other US warplanes conducting what a senior navy officer called a "shock and awe" campaign.
Once the first Tomahawks struck Baghdad at about 1800 GMT, the Iraqis tried to fight back.
"I'm in the back and I can't see anything so all I heard was 'Missile in the air!'," recalled Lieutenant Doug Graber.
"First one I've ever seen," said Bouyer, who was helping the pilot navigate the prong-nosed plane. "I was a little nervous, a little jumpy."
Bouyer told reporters he saw a light from what he assumed was the missile's rocket motor. It glowed for a few seconds and then disappeared.
"We saw a few of them...about five," Bouyer said.
The officers said the Iraqi missiles were reasonably far away and likely directed toward some of the many other US warplanes in the sky over Baghdad.
US and British forces struck 1,500 targets on Friday, with 1,000 strike sorties and 1,000 cruise missiles, a US defense official said in Washington.
Baghdad was turned into an inferno from waves of air strikes on the second day of the US-led military campaign to oust Saddam Hussein from power. The Republican Palace, a symbol of Saddam's 24-year iron grip on the country, lay in flames.
Bouyer said they also saw anti-aircraft fire -- "just a couple of rapid bursts, almost like a light flickering" below them.
That was nothing compared with the Tomahawks, whose first explosions the crew watched.
"You couldn't hear anything. You could just see the lights," said Bouyer, who watched through night vision goggles which turned the sky green.
"The first thing I saw was just a glow on the horizon," he said.
That glow from the first Tomahawk went up toward a layer of cloud "and kind of expanded underneath the cloud layer. You could see more and more of these little explosions and lights popping up," Bouyer said.
While the Prowler spent about one hour over Baghdad, another Kitty Hawk pilot was one of many working farther south in the Basra area.
Lieutenant Commander Mark Johnson, 35, said he was assigned to support Marine Corps units heading north.
His F/A-18 Hornet attack fighter carried laser-guided 500-pound bombs but Johnson said he was not called in to drop them, apparently because US forces were not meeting resistance.
"You could see in certain places we went to where there were some columns moving north. I didn't see any columns coming down south to meet them," said Johnson, of Strike Fighter Squadron 27, known as the Royal Maces.
He said the sky was filled with other warplanes as well as anti-aircraft artillery bursts and about a dozen fires from what he said were oil facilities that had been set ablaze.
Johnson, a blue-eyed Californian, said he was disappointed he didn't drop his ordnance.
"When you know that the guys down there need help and they give you a call, and you can come in and put the bomb on target, it's great," he said.
220 ARRESTED AS US WEST COAST ERUPTS IN SECOND DAY OF WAR PROTESTS
Some 220 anti-war activists were arrested in San Francisco on Friday as protests erupted on the US west coast a day after 1,400 demonstrators were detained at the start of the US war in Iraq.
The latest detentions brought the total number of those picked up in a massive campaign of civil disobedience launched to protest the US-led war in Iraq to more than 1,600 with the number expected to rise.
They also coincided with a new wave of protests, including one in Los Angeles where 27 people -- including clerics -- were detained when several hundred demonstrators turned out to denounce the war.
"The number of those arrested has risen to 220 and we have revised Thursday's arrests up to 1,400," said a San Francisco Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. Earlier the number for Thursday's detentions was put at 1,311.
"What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!" the demonstrators chanted.
"It's depressing to me that a lot of people believe that because we have already gone to war, they think there's nothing we can do," said protester Jamie McHugh.
"I am supporting the troops by asking them to be brought home," he added.
Like the 1,400 arrested a day earlier, most of the demonstrators picked up Friday were booked for blocking traffic or resisting arrest, Hirst said.
Detainees were taken to a warehouse on a pier near the city's famed Fisherman's Wharf for processing as the city's law enforcement agencies battled to contain the series of rolling protests.
Organisers of the civil disobedience campaign have vowed they will continue blocking intersections and bridges, shackling themselves to street furniture and creating human cordons to snarl up traffic as long as the war continues.
But police vowed to stop them from blocking the city's main thoroughfares.
"We went from what I would call legal protests to absolute anarchy," San Francisco's Assistant Police Chief Alex Fagan said.
Since the war began three days ago, hundreds of anti-war rallies across the United States have swelled and intensified, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets, some paralysing traffic and clashing with police.
In Los Angeles, people including clergymen were detained in an interfaith protest outside government buildings aimed at denouncing US policy towards Iraq, organisers said.
One of those arrested was Shan Cretin, 56, a regional director of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group.
"I'm deeply distressed that our country that is so rich ... has such an impoverished way of dealing with foreign policy," she said.
Jesuit priest John Coleman, one of at least two clerics leaders arrested, said the military action was "an unjust war, and one can't cooperate in unjust wars."
Further protests and arrests were expected across the United States on Friday and throughout the weekend.
In Chicago, in the US Midwest, an estimated 4,000 people took to the streets late Friday for a second consecutive night of anti-war protests.
The marchers' filed through the city center, on a route that took them past the corporate headquarters of the Boeing Company and the Leo Burnett advertising agency -- two corporations associated with the US military -- flanked by police in riot gear.
As they passed the Leo Burnett building the protesters chanted: "We know what this place is for ... advertising for the war."
PENTAGON CONCERNED ABOUT POSSIBLE IRAQI ATTEMPTS TO CAUSE FLOODS
WASHINGTON, March 22 (AFP) - The Pentagon is considering how to react if Iraqi forces decide to unleash floods by opening dams or resevoirs in an attempt to slow down the US-led invasion, officials said Friday.
"Despite Saddam Hussein's claims to the contrary, historical precedence indicates Iraqi military strategies include the release of water as a viable option for deterring enemy forces," Pentagon officials said in a statement.
In a press briefing Friday, General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said he had no evidence that the Iraqis planned to unleash floods, but added that "we've taken some actions to help mitigate that."
He did not elaborate on what any such measures might involve.
According to the Pentagon statement, if the Iraqi military were to release water into the Tigris River from upstream reservoirs, extensive flooding could occur between Baghdad and the southeastern town Al Kut resulting in thousands of people being displaced.
The release of small amounts of water from major dams and canals could also cause catastrophic flooding in the Euphrates river valley and slow the advance of invading troops, the statement said.
Even without human intervention, certain portions of southern Iraq will experience flooding as the rainy season and snow melt-off in the north proceed during March and April, it added.
TWO IRAQIS DETAINED AT MEXICAN BORDER TRYING TO ENTER US
TIJUANA, Mexico, March 22 (AFP) - Two Iraqi brothers and an American of Iraqi descent were detained by Mexican immigration authorities in a bus station here early Friday preparing to enter the United States, Mexico's Notimex news agency said.
The agency quoted immigration sources as saying Dahsh and Janges Slio Mattis were carrying forged Austrian papers when they were taken into custody in this border town south of California.
With them was US national Saad Murad, to whom they had allegedly paid 8,000 dollars apiece to arrange for political asylum in the United States.
The three were spotted getting off a bus from Puerto Vallarta and held for investigation by immigration authorities, it said.
1,000 AIR STRIKES, 1,000 CRUISE MISSILES FIRED IN IRAQ: PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, March 22 (AFP) - US and British air forces flew 1,000 strike sorties and fired 1,000 cruise missiles in Iraq Friday in a barrage of firepower aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime, a US defense official said Friday.
Regime command and control, security and leadership installations were targeted as well as sites related to weapons of mass destruction and the integrated air defense system, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"They flew from 30 air bases in a dozen countries and five carriers," said the official. "No strike aircraft were lost."
Over a 24-hour period on March 21 Iraqi time, US and British forces struck 1,500 targets with precision guided bombs and cruise missiles, the official said.
B-2 stealth bombers launched raids from their home base at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, flying 38 hours round trip to drop 2,000 pound satellite guided bombs on targets in Iraq, the official said.
B-52 bombers fired conventional air launched cruise missiles on missions flowm both from Fairford RAF, Britain and the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, the official said.
Also taking part in the raids were long-range B-1 bombers, F-117 stealth fighters, F-15 strike fighters, F-16 fighters, F/A-18 fighters, and A-10 Thunderbolt attack planes, according to the official.
They encountered heavy anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air fire, they said.
In all, 1,000 cruise missiles were fired both from B-52s and US navy ships in the Gulf, the official said.
US and British aircraft flew 2,000 sorties, including 1,000 strike sorties during the 24-hour period, according to the official.
"It was the first time in history that all PGMs (precision guided munitions) were used" in such a wide assault, the official said.
"Bomb damage assessment is still ongoing," the official said.
They dropped mainly satellite-guided 2,000 pound Joint Direct Action Munitions (JDAMS), some of them with ground penetrating warhead, the official said.
F-117 stealth fighters dropped 2,000 pound GBU-27 laser-guided "bunker busting" bombs during the raids, the official said.
But no 5,000-pound GBU-28 "bunker busting" bombs were used in the attacks, the official said.
Nor was the new 21,000 pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb or the 15,000-pound "Daisy Cutter" bomb, the two biggest conventional bombs in the US arsenal, the official said.
OIL FIELD FIRES CONTROLLED, AUSTRALIAN OFFICIALS SAY
CANBERRA, March 22 (AFP) - Iraq's southern oil fields have been secured by coalition forces and damage done in a number of fires was assessed to have been minimal, Australian defence officials said here Saturday.
Defence Forces chief General Peter Cosgrove said that by securing the fields, an environmental disaster had been avoided should Iraqis have attempted to set fire to them again.
"The southern oil fields have been secured and the damage has been assessed as minimal," Cosgrove told reporters.
"This is a significant success as it has enabled all of us to avoid potential ecological disaster."
Australian SAS special forces troops have been in operation ahead of the main coalition forces since the first day of the Iraq war.
Cosgrove also revealed that an air force F/A-18 jet assigned to the coalition had dropped the first Australian bomb, a 500 pound (226 kg) laser guided bomb, on a "target of opportunity".
He said the target could have been anything from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to a mobile missile battery.
"It was directed at what we would call a target of opportunity and we don't have further information about the success or otherwise of that attack.
"It should be noted that other aircraft also engaged the same target and we're waiting for bomb damage assessment."
US President George W Bush earlier phoned Australian Prime Minister John Howard to update him on the situation in Iraq.
A spokeswoman for Howard said the leaders spoke on a secure phone line for about 20 minutes during which Bush expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the war.
"The president said he is satisfied with the way things are going and appreciative of Australia's contribution," she said.
About 2,000 Australian defence personnel have been committed to the Iraqi war.
IRAQI TROOPS SHOT OWN OFFICERS TO AVOID BATTLE: REPORT
LONDON, March 22 (AFP) - Iraqi conscript soldiers shot their own officers to avoid having to fight allied troops over oil terminals in the strategic Fao Peninsula in southern Iraq Friday, The Times reported.
British commandos found a bunker full of dead Iraqi officers, with spent shells from an AK47 rifle around them, the Saturday edition of the British daily said.
Stuck between US troops and elite British Royal Marines, whom they did not want to fight, and an Iraqi regime that would kill them if they refused, it was the conscripts' only way out, The Times added.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Friday that coalition troops had secured a beachhead on the Fao after pushing into southern Iraq, but an Iraq military spokesman said later that its armed forces were resisting in the peninsula.
HARDLINE ISLAMIST GROUP IN NORTHERN IRAQ HIT BY US STRIKES: KURDS
A hardline Islamist group operating in Iraqi Kurdistan and accused by Washington of being linked to al-Qaeda was targetted late Friday by US airstrikes, Kurdish political and military sources said.
The sources from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam) positions were hit by around five missiles late in the evening. No further details were immediately available.
Ansar al-Islam control a tiny pocket of territory between the town of Halabja and the Iranian border, an area around 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of the PUK's administrative centre of Sulaymaniya.
In recent days there has been a major build-up of PUK forces in the area.
The group has been accused by the United States of trying to develop crude chemical weapons, and of having links to both Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and Saddam Hussein's regime -- even though the Ansar pocket does not border territory under Baghdad's control.
The PUK has said there are also a number of Afghan-trained foreign Arab fighters in the mainly ethnic Kurdish ranks of the group, which emerged in late 2001. In the past the PUK has accused Iran of backing the group, a charge that Tehran fiercely denied.
The group has an estimated 800 fighters based in a cluster of around 16 villages.
Ansar al-Islam, which models itself on Afghanistan's deposed Taliban regime, has also been battling the secular PUK and has been blamed for a series of suicide bombings and assassinations -- a major distraction for the PUK.
Given the US allegation against Ansar and assertions from Washington that a key aim of the war is to prevent weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of Islamist militants, the group was widely expected to be targetted in the opening stages of the war.
Most of rebel-held northern Iraq is in the hands of two mainstream Kurdish factions, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which wrested control of the region in the wake of the last Gulf War in 1991.
The suspected leader of Ansar al-Islam, Mullah Krekar, was reportedly arrested late Thursday in Norway after he warned in an interview that US troops would face suicide attacks.
Norwegian prosecutor Erling Grimstad told Oslo's Aftenposten newspaper that a warrant was issued to prevent Krekar from leaving the country. A police source in Norway told AFP that a warrant was issued but could not confirm Krekar had been detained.
Krekar, who has enjoyed political refugee status in Norway since 1991, faces possible legal action for an interview Wednesday on Dutch television in which he warned US forces of fierce resistance.
"We have young people who will give their lives, yes, suicide attacks," Krekar said.
The Iraqi Kurd had been arrested in The Netherlands in September and spent nearly four months in custody where he was also questioned by the FBI. He was eventually released and sent back to Norway, where he has been interrogated almost every day by the PST, Norway's secret police.
AUSTRALIAN HUMAN SHIELDS SAY AMERICANS WILL NOT BE WELCOMED IN BAGHDAD
SYDNEY, March 22 (AFP) - Australian "human shields" in Baghdad said Saturday that US-led forces were unlikely to be welcomed into Baghdad city where they would be seen as as invaders.
Australian Donna Mulhearn, one of 16 human shields positioned at the Taji wheat silo, north of Baghdad, said: "Everything in central Baghdad is closed. There's no one on the streets. It's like a ghost town."
Mulhearn, 34, a journalist from the New South Wales city of Newcastle told Australian Associated Press it was unlikely coalition troops would be warmly welcomed by Iraqis when they arrived in Baghdad.
"The feeling here is an almost hate for the United States. They feel very much victimised by the US," she said.
Mulhearn said she was not personally afraid, adding: "My main fear is the impact of this bombing on the city of Baghdad.
"My greatest fear at the moment is not knowing what effect this is having, whether there have been civilian casualties ... at the moment I'm not caring much for my own safety."
She said she had no idea how long she would be in Baghdad.
"We could be here for days we could be here for weeks," she said.
The human shields say they are spending their nights on watch at strategic sites and their days sleeping in hotels, undaunted by the outbreak of war.
"They have to sleep during the day, when it is very hot," a coordinator, who did not want to be named, told AAP from Baghdad.
The Australians were acting as shields on essential services sites such as food stores and water treatment plants, she said.
As many as 100 human shields of various nationalities have remained in the Iraqi capital in an attempt to protect targets ranging from power stations to power plants and an oil refinery.
MASSIVE IRAQ AIR STRIKES TARGETED REGIME, NOT CIVILIANS: BRITAIN
LONDON, March 22 (AFP) - A massive air raid by US and British forces on Baghdad Friday was "carefully targeted" at President Saddam Hussein's regime and designed to minimise civilian casualties, Britain's defence ministry said.
A US defense official said that allied air forces flew 1,000 strike sorties and fired 1,000 cruise missiles in Iraq, which the British defence ministry called a "deliberate escalation of the campaign".
The ministry said in a statement: "This is a significant bombardment but it is important to know that:
-- it is carefully targeted against the regime, against facilities that prop up the regime and its command and control systems;
-- it is carefully targeted to minimise civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure."
At a press conference later Saturday, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Michael Boyce, were to explain the "strategic context" of the operation, "demonstrating that the targets were "carefully selected because of their functions and those who operate within them," the statement added.
US DELAYS ANNOUNCEMENT OF CONTRACTS TO RUN IRAQI AIR, SEA PORTS
WASHINGTON, March 21 (AFP) - US President George W Bush's administration delayed the award Friday of a contract to a US firm to run Iraqi seaports after the war, an official said.
US Agency for International Development (USAID) spokesman Luke Zahner said the announcement of the winner of the seaports management contract, originally scheduled for Friday, would now be made Monday.
A separate contract to run airports in postwar Iraq would be announced early next week, and another contract for the reconstruction of infrastructure such as bridges and roads was also expected to be awarded Tuesday or Wednesday.
Delays in contacting the firms involved were blamed for the postponement.
The deals are among eight civilian contracts for the postwar reconstruction of Iraq, tendered by USAID since January 31 to a select group of US companies.
The process has been criticised by some analysts because of its secrecy and the small number of firms involved. No foreign companies were invited to tender.
The four remaining contracts cover logistical support to manage the reconstruction efforts in the fields of health, schooling and local governance.
One deal has already been struck. A 7.1 million dollar personnel contract was awarded to Washington-based International Resources Group on February 21.
The value of all eight contracts is being kept secret until Bush tells Congress how much he wants to finance the war, according to Alfonso Aguilar, a second USAID spokesman.
US press reports said the value could exceed 900 million dollars.
The urgent need to award the contracts prompted a special provisions for an fast-track procurement process, in which only firms that met certain criteria were invited to apply, USAID said.
Those criteria included technical capabilites, proven accounting mechanisms, and the ability to field qualified technical teams at short notice.
Importantly, firms also were required to have personnel cleared to view classified information.
"This is one of the reasons why US firms only are being included in this first phase, because their personnel need to have security clearance. They will need to view classified documents," Aguilar said.
Given the size of the contracts, USAID expected the work to require subcontractors, he said.
"In that process of subcontracting, we are making sure it is open to any firm from anywhere, including foreign firms," he added
©THE REVIVAL 2003
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