Saddam’s top troops march to fight allies

SADDAM HUSSEIN launched his first major offensive out of Baghdad last night, dispatching his elite Republican Guards to confront American troops in central Iraq.

The offensive came at the end of a day of setbacks for the coalition and heavy casualties on the Iraqi side.

America last night admitted its warplanes were probably responsible for hitting a Baghdad market, killing a reported 14 Iraqi civilians and injuring 30 others.

US President George W Bush had earlier praised the "lethal precision" of his American pilots and warned Saddam his day of reckoning was near.

Under cover of a sandstorm, Iraqi troops went on the offensive last night, moving out of Baghdad and heading for an area that has already seen the heaviest fighting of the war.

Such a move by Saddam would defy conventional military wisdom, with most analysts predicting the Iraqis would be crushed by the coalition's massive firepower and overwhelming aerial superiority.

However, Iraqi commanders believed the appalling weather conditions would protect their troops from being decimated by allied air power, much of which has been grounded by the sandstorm.

US helicopter pilots resupplying marines in the area said military intelligence had spotted 3,000 Republican Guards moving from the capital to the city of Al Kut, and 2,000 more were seen south of Al Kut.

The Iraqi advance appeared to signal that Saddam's best trained and most loyal force was ready to go on the offensive despite days of allied air strikes and missile attacks on its positions.

The Iraqis, meanwhile, issued their first report of battlefield action by the Republican Guards.

A spokesman said a Guard special forces unit attacked coalition troops in south-central Iraq, destroying six armoured vehicles and inflicting an unspecified number of casualties.

US troops were reported to have yesterday lost tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles in a clash with Iraqis south of Najaf, near where on Tuesday the US 7th Cavalry killed up to 500 Iraqis who had ambushed them.

A US military officer said there had been a fierce battle yesterday for control of a bridge over the River Euphrates at Abu Sukhayr, 13 miles south-east of Najaf.

He said an unspecified number of tanks and Bradleys had been destroyed. He believed the US crews, under the command of the 3rd Infantry Division, had escaped the vehicles but their fate was unknown.

The US is flying 30,000 more troops to the Gulf its hi-tech 4th Infantry Division and other units raising fears the American forces have become over-extended in their race to the southern approaches to Baghdad.

The decision to send more troops came after a day of setbacks for the coalition. A statement by US Central Command said the warplanes that killed the 14 pedestrians in the Shaab district of Baghdad had been targeting Iraqi missile sites less than 300 feet away from civilian homes.

The Central Command statement said coalition aircraft had targeted nine Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles and launchers in a residential area of Baghdad.

Earlier, senior coalition commanders had suggested the Iraqis had deliberately staged the explosion to discredit the US and British forces.

The strike on the Baghdad market was the worst incident of so-called "collateral damage" in the war so far.

It came as a bitter setback for the coalition forces which have been at pains to stress they were taking the utmost precautions to avoid civilian casualties when planning air strikes.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi television screened graphic footage of two bodies, which they claimed were those of British soldiers killed in fighting. One had been shot in the chest.

The footage included a jubilant crowd of civilians clambering over what was apparently the soldiers' Land Rover.

President Bush remained defiant yesterday, saying Saddam's end was near: "We cannot predict the final day of the Iraqi regime, but I can assure you, and I assure the long-suffering people of Iraq, there will be a day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime, and that day is drawing near."