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US vows to finish Saddam, but advance slows
( 2003-03-28 08:24 ) (7 )

The United States and Britain vowed on Thursday to wage war for as long as it took to eliminate President Saddam Hussein and ordered more troops to the battlefield, as Iraq's defense minister said the invaders would have to conquer Baghdad street by street.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair conferred against a background of fiercer than expected Iraqi resistance which raised the prospect that the fighting might go on for several more weeks.

Speaking to reporters at the presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland, Bush and Blair also called on the United Nations to resume its oil-for-food program to help meet growing humanitarian needs in Iraq.

Diplomats said later that U.N. Security Council members had reached broad agreement to free billions of dollars of Iraq's oil revenues in an effort to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Bush and Blair stressed they would not be deterred by Iraqi resistance, but refused to speculate on how long the war might last.

"This isn't a matter of timetable, it's a matter of victory," the US president said. "And the Iraqi people have got to know that. They have got to know that they will be liberated and Saddam Hussein will be removed, no matter how long it takes."

As relentless bombing again shook Baghdad setting fires in the city center, Iraq said the weeklong conflict had caused more than 4,000 civilian casualties, including more than 350 dead. There was no independent confirmation of these figures.

Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed said he expected that US-led forces would manage to encircle Baghdad within five to 10 days but they would then have to face fierce street fighting that could last months.

"We set up our (main) defenses in Baghdad. It will be no surprise that in five to 10 days they will be able to encircle all our positions in Baghdad. They have the capability to do so," he told a news conference.

BAGHDAD "IMPREGNABLE"

"But they have to come into the city eventually ... God willing, Baghdad will be impregnable. We will fight to the end and everywhere. History will record how well Iraqis performed in defense of their capital," Ahmed said.

The US Army's senior ground commander in Iraq was quoted as saying that stretched supply lines and stiff resistance had stalled the US advance and made a longer war more likely.

The Washington Post quoted Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace as saying Iraqi irregulars using guerrilla-style tactics were not what US forces had expected.

"The enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd war-gamed against," Wallace, commander of the US Army's V Corps, said, as quoted by the newspaper.

The prospect of having to take Baghdad house by house and street by street is the biggest nightmare of US military planners. Such an operation could cause high military and civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, the air assault on Iraqi defenders in Baghdad continued unabated. A barrage of explosions battered central Baghdad late in the day, lighting up the sky and sparking a large fire on the west bank of the River Tigris, where several ministries and military compounds are located. One of Saddam's presidential compounds was also hit.

US officials said the Pentagon would double its forces on the ground in Iraq to about 200,000 in the next month.

Thousands of additional US forces would flow into Iraq from Kuwait, including the 4th Infantry Division from Texas, 1st Armored Division from Germany and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Colorado.

The Iraqi armed forces said in a communiqué they had killed nine more troops over the past 24 hours and had destroyed 10 tanks and 13 armored personnel carriers. The US military did not immediately comment.

The United States and Britain launched the war to oust Saddam and take control of his alleged weapons of mass destruction, none of which have yet been found.

According to the latest official count, a total of 28 US troops have been killed and 18 are listed as missing. No reliable estimate of Iraqi military losses is available.

Blair charged that some captured British soldiers had been executed by the Iraqis. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf said that Blair had lied. "We haven't executed anyone," he said.

RESISTANCE IN SOUTH

In al-Zubayr, 13 miles south of the main southern city of Basra, Reuters correspondents Michael Georgy and Rosalind Russell reported that Iraqi militias, mixing with the local population, were pinning down US and British forces, trapping civilians in the cross-fire. In that town alone, residents said as many as 15 civilians had been killed.

Tanks, which were expected to roll into Basra early in the war, were still bogged down in battles in civilian neighborhoods with a few Saddam loyalists proving strong enough to hold back the invasion.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there was no point in other nations trying to mediate a cease-fire.

"I have no idea what some country might propose, but there isn't going to be a cease-fire," he said.

As the weather improved in Iraq after two days of blinding sandstorms, US troops that have pushed north from Kuwait toward Baghdad consolidated their supply lines and prepared for major clashes with troops loyal to Saddam.

In the north, 1,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade took over an airfield in Kurdish-controlled territory.

"This is the beginning of the northern front," a US defense official said. But military experts said this could take weeks and would require a massive airlift of armor.

Iraqi Kurd fighters crossed the frontline into Iraqi government-controlled territory in the first such advance since the start of the US-led war eight days ago.

There was no clash during the advance to the hilltops looking down on the town of Chamchamal. Iraqi soldiers had apparently fled their positions, which US warplanes had hit in recent days.