I'll be the first to say it. Regarding Mosul and Baghdad, never have so many bombs been dropped on such a large city that caused so much destruction and yet killed so few civilians. Military history is being made.

Dropping bombs at 4:20 ... does that mean there are individuals sympathetic with the Marijuana Legalization issue in the military planning group????

g-nite. great work.

Dropping bombs at 4:20 ... does that mean there are individuals sympathetic with the Marijuana Legalization issue in the military planning group????

The Marijuana site is obviously of terrorist nature. They use the Slashcode.

Slashcode?

This chemical plant story is getting big. Caroline Glick of the JP, interviewed on Fox News, is reporting that Iraqi uniformed military POWs were taken at the facility. She's says that "a couple dozen officers" were taken prisoner. That is a big clue as to what the plant was being used for. It's a 100 acre facility. It's heavily camouflaged.

Slashcode is the open source BBS software developed by Rob et al. for Slashdot.org

any good maps?

Great maps and other stuff: Click here -- of course I do not take any credit for this info 8)

Speaking of questioning military tactics:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16458-2003Mar23.html

Wait a second...we hadn't taken Baath Party headquarters in Umm Qasr?

What does it mean to say we've secured the city then?

Are we even close to "mopping up" Umm Qasr?

wonderful site...have another pizza

What about Basra? Still a blackout?

We took the Baath party headquarters?? What's next, the Umm Qasr elementary school PTA??

CNN had some footage of what Aaron Brown called a new and serious oil pipeline fire. Anyone know anything about this?

Where is II MEF? The world wonders.

How big could the Baath HQ in Umm Qasr even be?

pipeline fire is Southwest of Al Najaf

http://www.methaz.com/blogpics/iraq.html shows possible evidence of broken dam North of Mosul. Not good.

Baath HQ could pretty much be town hall given the amount of dissent in Iraq. Not a huge deal but probably symbolically significant to the people there.

Don't you think there would be additional militia protecting the party HQ? even in Umm Qasr...
News Alert FoxNews says current "major battle" in An Nasiriyah for bridges over the Euphrates. They said info was from embedded producer.

Need one more update fix before bed...
one more fix...

Being able to spell these city names by memory is scaring me!!! Hopefully it will come in useful when Iraq is open to Western investment. Has anyone noticed that in the pictures of the streets of Baghdad... NO ADVERTISING BILLBOARDS. Even photos of Gaza and Pakistan have billboards. China's virgining advertising market hit $7 billion (USD) last year... those $$$$ would also rush into a free Iraq. My 2 cents!

Left Coast Bill:

Thanks for your responses. I suppose I think of capturing the Baath Party Headquarters and picture Marines with AK-74's storming the DNC and shooting Terry McAuliffe and a couple of press secretaries. It's probably different in Iraq where the party, the State, and the military are practically one and the same.

I suppose I think of capturing the Baath Party Headquarters and picture Marines with AK-74's storming the DNC and shooting Terry McAuliffe and a couple of press secretaries.,/i>

I think there are some Freepers who would consider that a pretty good idea . . .

The Baath party HQ in Umm Qasr was just captured now? Incredible. Only 12 hours after the second "securing" of the town. I too am beginning to wonder who controls the place. Who cares how big the place is, or how many troops were protecting it? This is twice the place is supposed to have been captured, yet it still isn't.

Basra, if you believe the GRU, is blacked out because the coalition is getting nowhere there.

Does anyone else think W may have just blown his chances for re-election?

Goodnight, and thanks for all the hard work. I don't know how you've done it by yourself, but you've managed to beat every other news source out there for war reporting (and believe me, I've tried them all). I hope you somehow get recognized and/or paid for this.

"Coalition forces have met the main line of Iraqi resitance..."

Countup to this being reported on CNN: 17 minutes and mounting.

I haven't kept up with previous comments on the topic, but ... does anybody take that "took a wrong turn" story about the 507th seriously? Seriously?

FOXNews now reporting Ramalayah oil fields now "un-secure" ... no further details yet

'spose gwb will be reviewing his policy of tac nukes soon?

please close your tags

Confirm Fox News reporting major battle in An Nasiriyah shaping up. They went to a live feed of an embedded Sky TV journalist looking at a cluster of troops apparently in a planning session. However, they were unable to establish radio contact and then lost contact entirely. Fox News is almost completely untrustworthy, but they usually err in to the side of coalition optimism, so this report may have some merit. According to this report, the bridges are still unsecured and the vehicles in the picture were certainly stopped with a helicopter on the ground nearby (undamaged as far as I could tell). They did restablish visual contact while I watched, unless they were from tape.

IRNA reported on March 22 that a column of 1,000 Iraqi troops were en route for Umm Qasr, where coalition forces continue to face resistance.

Wouldn't we spot this movement from the air and bomb it?

Disturbing....CIA...TWO or three days...

AHhhhhhhhhhh

How can you throw that out there like that and keep us hanging....

FIX FIX NOW NOW

JUNKIE!

This site is fantastic. Thanks for helping to get this information to everyone, Sean-Paul, and congratulations on your excellent coverage.
You are making a difference.

Best of luck,
Peter.

just like to agree with aaron regarding the cia story. you tease!

Shouldn't you keep disturbing emails about the CIA under wraps until you post the big news? Wouldn't want any disturbing mysterious deaths...

>>Lee
Yea the iraqi's moving armor around doesn't seem like a good idea to me either. But then again I've been hearing this rumor from other sources too. Maybe they are gambling that our air-assets are all being utilised right now.

I'm just worried about the possibility of an ambush.. We've let all of these soldiers go after stripping them of equipment, just to run ahead. Who knows what other weapons depots we haven't found yet.. And thank you so very very much for this site.!

The POW photos at yellowtimes don't seem to be up anymore. You can still find them at Al Jazeera at http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2003/3/3-23-23.htm

They made me cry.

I'd love to know what the 101st is up to. Where is that brigade that's supposed to have gone in already? Northern Iraq, like I'd guess, or are they trying to do something clever? Is the rest of the division going to wait until the attack on the Baghdad to do anything?

"The Baath party HQ in Umm Qasr was just captured now? Incredible. Only 12 hours after the second "securing" of the town. I too am beginning to wonder who controls the place. Who cares how big the place is, or how many troops were protecting it? This is twice the place is supposed to have been captured, yet it still isn't."

i wasn't aware this is a video game.

i think some of you people are a bit drunk on the information and swiftness of what is going on.
wars and battles arent little bits of drama for you to experince.
until you grab a gun and a uniform i wouldnt be so critical.

bbc is reporting that people in civilian clothes are sniping in the rumalia oilfields...there comments amount to the suggestion that there is going to be a long guerilla war.

Just to prognosticate, someday this week one of the major news sources will mention the word "Tobruk".

Tobruk is a port on the Libyan coast which was bypassed by the German panzer commander Rommel in his race towards the Nile in April 1941. The Commonwealth (and mostly Australian) Western Desert force retreated from Rommel's advance and manned the fortifications there, sallying forth irregularly to cut Rommel's lines of communications on the Via Balbia. Indeed, this thorn in his side was so great that Rommel's advance was halted, in part from fear that the Aussies could at any time (at some expense) immobilize his columns by cutting off his supplies of fuel and fresh water.

Back to the present - the left-hook of the 3rd Infantry is certainly audacious, and undoubtedly bears the imprint of a fan of Rommel's Gazala campaign in the CENTCOM staff. But if the regulars don't throw down their arms, we face not one but a series of Tobruks: Al Basrah, An Nasiriya, As Samawah. The Iraqis are no Aussies, to be sure - but I'm not so sure we're much better than the vaunted AfrikaKorps.

GREAT post on Tobruk

CNN Right Now Chyron:

Iraqi TV: Sammam to give "Historic Speech" shortly"

http://www.methaz.com/blogpics/iraq.html shows possible evidence of broken dam North of Mosul.

damn, yes. that was what i saw a blip of information about on IRNA a couple of days ago. it might also explain why the al-jazeera reporter in mosul (that is where he was, i checked the size and layout) was so excited. though i have no way to compare the water level with what it should be this time a year -- it would certainly explain why the camera panned back and forth along the river. back to older satellite images to have a further look.

Oh I wish I could edit my posts -- Saddam, not Sammam. Speech still not started.

Centcom confirming two more casualties.

Street fighting in Umm Qasr.

> I'd love to know what the 101st is up to. Where is that brigade that's supposed to have gone in already?

This is just the kind of unit (airmobile infantry, or air assault) that is perfect for operations in the rougher terrain in the north, where ground movement is restricted by the grain of the mountain valleys. In Gulf I it staged forward 150 miles from Saudi Arabia into a basecamp in the desert south of As Samawah, and from there its helicopters covered the coalitions long left flank.

Personally, I doubt that it would be logistically posible for them to stage forward to the northern mountains - they're simply too far from Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait. But, I could see good use for the independent brigades of the 101st covering the stretches that have appeared between the 3rd Inf and the Marines, or the Marines and the Iranian border. So I'd look for several new camps to be established, perhaps one in the vicinity of Al Qurnah north of Basra, and another north of As Samawah.

Recall also, that while heavy in helicopter lift capacity, and with extra Apache's, the 101st is closer to a light infantry unit than the mechanized columns you've seen so far. It has no intrinsic tanks or infantry fighting vehicles. So it has tremendous ability survey a lot of terrain, and hold defensive strongpoints, it is relatively weak in the offensive.

"wars and battles arent little bits of drama for you to experince.
until you grab a gun and a uniform i wouldnt be so critical."

dg, I spent a dozen years in uniform, and I'm quite capable of sifting through battlefield reports. If Umm Qatr has been reported secure, then someone was on cheap drugs, not once but twice.. either that, or the Iraqis manage somehow to keep getting troops into the town.. not once, but twice.

sombrehombre: re Tobruk; very interesting analysys, you may well be correct. Perhaps somewhere in the depths of Iraqi high command there is a fan of Wavell.

from what i've seen on 101, they have a significant number of apaches...

which are pretty good at taking the offensive

101 is lethal when it's in the air.. on land yeah it ain't all that much.. that's why it's the airborne!

I read somewhere (reading news all over the place) that it was the 173rd Airborne Brigade which went into Northern Iraq.

Globalsecurity.org says that II MEF was in Jordan, and presumably attacking into Western Iraq.

Keep up the good work!

Best news so far for the coalition -- if your sources are right -- is that the al Medina, Hammurabbi and Nebuchudnezzar Republic Guards divisions have come out in the "Karbala, An Najaf, and Al Kut axis"

They are the hard core of the regime's loyal fighting force. If they come out in the open and engage with the 3rd ID here rather than withdraw back to Baghdad, then they play to the coalition's strength. There will be casualties on our side, but this is exactly where US superior firepower will deliver. Of course it would be nice if there was perhaps an armoured division there from our side to help out. I guess that will be in the afteraction report . . .

libertarian: I should clarify - I think the Apache is an amazing piece of equipment, but helicopters do not have the ability to breach a heavily contested zone and hold ground like tanks do.

The AH-64 was originally designed for the Fulda Gap in Germany, where it could pop up from a behind a hill several km behind the front, target and fire a few missiles at advancing Soviet tanks up to their range of 6-7 km, then hide again before the ZSU-23 ack-ack filled their bit of airspace with lead. At any rate, don't get the image of an armored version of the helicopter gunships in Black Hawk Down, swooping forward directly over the adversary - think more of a very mobile way of moving a divisions anti-tank guided missiles to a threatened sector.

Against an adversary armed only with light weapons, like the irregulars in Afghanistan, they can play it rough and loose, but an organized air-defense makes this much, much more difficult.

Anyway, what makes the 101st special is that it is the only division in the inventory designed to ignore the roadnet - it can move battalions anywhere a helo can be set down. This gives it huge advantages in being able to concentrate force or envelop at will, but doesn't change the fact that its still mostly a foot infantry division.