Forces push to 50 miles from Baghdad

The US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division dashed north today toward the Shiite holy city of Karbala, only 50 miles south of Baghdad, but was stalled by a sandstorm that blew out of the desert in the afternoon.

Allied planes were due to fly more than 1,000 sorties today – 800 of them in the Baghdad area where elite Republican Guards were to be targeted.

To the south, British troops and Iraqi forces exchanged artillery fire on the outskirts of Basra, Iraq’s second largest city.

Troops from the British 7th Armoured Brigade were south and west of Basra, as irregular units – the elite Republican Guard, Special Security Organisation forces or the paramilitary militia Fedayeen – kept coalition forces from taking the city, British officials said.

A US official said British forces outside Basra were under heavy fire.

“This is not a video game where everything is clear and neat and tidy. Some enemy who feel that they want to carry on fighting will inevitably do so,” said Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie McCourt, a spokesman for British forces in the Gulf, speaking at US Central Command in Qatar.