From WaPo: Girding against Iraqi attackers who have blurred the line between what's military and what's civilian, U.S. commanders have instructed troops to assume the worst and employ a range of tougher tactics aimed at weeding out and hunting down Iraqi militia, defense officials said yesterday.

From Reuters:

The United States is prepared to pay a "very high price" in terms of casualties to capture Baghdad and oust President Saddam Hussein, a senior U.S. Central Command official said on Monday.

"We're prepared to pay a very high price because we are not going to do anything other than ensure that this regime goes away," the official told reporters, adding that U.S. casualties in the 12-day-old war had so far been "fairly" light.

"If that means there will be a lot of casualties, then there will be a lot of casualties," said the official, who spoke on condition that he not be named.

WaPo reports: U.S. Marines captured a huge ammunition depot in south-central Iraq that included 40 warehouses, U.S. Central Command said on Tuesday. The facility compared in size to the ammunition dump at Camp Pendleton in southern California, said a Central Command statement from its war headquarters in Qatar.

This is no Vietnam John Keegan writes in today's Daily Telegraph.

Anti-war Labour MP George Galloway has defended an interview in which he branded Tony Blair and George Bush as "wolves" for committing the "crime" of military action against Iraq.

In an interview for Abu Dhabi TV, the Glasgow Kelvin MP questioned why Arab countries were selling oil to the coalition forces.

And he accused Mr Blair and Mr Bush of lying to the armed forces about the likely length of the war.

Mr Galloway stood by his comments, arguing that the war was illegal - and urged British soldiers to refuse to obey "illegal orders."

(This Is Bristol)

Fox's Pentagon reporter reports three Iraqi generals are in custody. Said to be "Republican Guard, or higher," possibly Special Republican Guard.

Embedded producer Kevin Monahan on Fox News: Saw Viking make an arrested landing on the deck of the USS Constellation. Plane fell off the deck and slid into the Persian Gulf. The two pilots ejected quickly. The Viking bobbed on the water for a few minutes but it sunk. Search and rescue helicopter in the area went to get them. A diver in the water pulled both pilots out of the water who had ejected. One pilot walked off the chopper, the other pilot couldn't, so he went out on a stretcher. The whole operation took 17 minutes.

Update: Fox has footage of rescue chopper as it came back.

Bret Baier in the Pentagon: The Navy says that the brakes didn't work, and the plane caught an edge. They speculate that there was a hydraulics problem.

Related to:US is losing public relations war in Iraq, Australian experts warn
NEAR KARBALA, Iraq, March 31 -- As an unidentified four-wheel drive vehicle came barreling toward an intersection held by troops of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, Capt. Ronny Johnson grew increasingly alarmed. From his position at the intersection, he was heard radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a potential threat.

"Fire a warning shot," he ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. "Stop [messing] around!" Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!"

That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all.

Full Story Wapo (thanks Toby)

Front Page, Tuesday's Washington Post:

U.S. soldiers attempting to secure a small river town about 50 miles south of Baghdad today fought the first close-up skirmishes with President Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, elite divisions that U.S. officials said have shifted additional troops southward to bolster Iraqi defenses seeking to repel the 12-day-old American invasion.

The clash involved elements of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division -- the tip of the U.S. invasion force -- and units from the Nebuchadnezzar Division in Hindiyah, a town along the Euphrates River halfway between the cities of Karbala and Hilla, according to the U.S. officials. The fighting, which involved small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and 25mm cannons, did not mark the beginning of a major U.S. push northward, they said, but nevertheless took the 3rd Division troops to the edge of newly reinforced Iraqi defenses arrayed to block the U.S. advance on the capital.

Story added that Iraqi defenses have been shifted to the south due to "confidence" Baghdad will not be attacked from the north.

Saudi Foreign Minister tells Saddam to leave Iraq.

He said: "If his staying in power (is) the only thing that brings problems to his country, we expect that he would respond to a sacrifice for his country, as he requires any citizen there to ... sacrifice for his country."

CANBERRA (AFP) - The US-led military coalition is losing the public relations war in Iraq although it may be regaining the military advantage, an Australian military expert warned.

Alan Dupont, of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of Canberra's Australian National University (ANU), described the shooting of Iraqi women and children as a publicity disaster for the US-led coalition.

His remarks followed the deaths of seven women and children when US troops opened fire on a civilian vehicle that failed to stop when ordered to do so at a military checkpoint in southern Iraq on Monday.

Full Story

MilitaryAnalysis KUWAIT, March 31 — From the day that he took office as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld has sought to change the nature of American defense. The military Mr. Rumsfeld wants to build is more mobile, can deliver precision weapons at vast distances and takes full advantage of sophisticated reconnaissance systems.

A final assessment of the strategy will have to await the battle for Baghdad. Mr. Rumsfeld also has defenders who say he is determined to stimulate change and challenge long-entrenched patterns of military thinking, even at the risk of offending retired and active duty generals.

What nobody disputes, however, is that the American force that is fighting in Iraq is fundamentally different from the one used during the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

Full Story NYT (Via Google)

While the British believe that all Iraqis captured should be given PoW status, the US has indicated it may wish to declare paramilitaries captured in civilian clothing as the equivalent of illegal combatants from Afghanistan. Although no decision has yet been made, those the British term paramilitaries or irregulars and the Americans call terrorists are being separated from regular Iraqi soldiers. If those detained are eventually classified illegal combatants they could end up at Guantanamo Bay.

Huma Ammash has been profiled by the always excelllent MEMRI. She is the Head of the Iraqi Biological Weapons Program.

By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, March 31, 2003

About a dozen U.S. troops trying to recover an errant Navy cruise missile Saturday were attacked by a mob of angry villagers in eastern Turkey near the Iraqi and Syrian borders.

Hurling eggs and rocks, the mob broke the windshields of four Humvees and injured one U.S. servicemember, said Cmdr. Ike Skelton, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Turkey.

Full Story

Further to an earlier report on Command Post, it now seems that Aussie SAS patrols are stopping westbound traffic.

From the NineMSN (Australia's Nine TV Network):

Australian human shield Donna Mulhearn has fled Baghdad for Amman before what is expected to be a bloody battle for the capital.

The 34-year-old said she and five other people arrived in Jordan on Sunday night
..
Ms Mulhearn said she met Australian SAS soldiers about 200km west of Baghdad at a roadblock, describing them as professional.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Two Kenyan truck drivers feared dead after being captured by Iraqi forces 10 days ago and then shown on television, have been rescued by British troops near a southern Iraq town.

David Mukaria and Jakubu Kamau had been gagged and blindfolded, and repeatedly listened to their captors discuss whether they should be allowed to live.

Bob Arnot from MSNBC, embedded with I MEF, reports that the Marines are encountering success using their light armored vehicles (LAVs), of which, he says, the Fedayeen are terrified, referring to them as "the destroyers". He says the Marines have been taken aback by certain reports (they apparently singled out the BBC) that they have suffered "setbacks" or have slowed down. They maintain that they have been prepared for everything the enemy has thrown at them and that they have "outsmarted" the enemy at every turn. Arnot says that, upon clearing a town, they were cheered by crowds of Iraqis. He also discussed the follow-on work being done by civil affairs teams (local liaison, humanitarian assistance, etc.).

UNABASHED EDITORIAL COMMENT: Semper Fi, Leathernecks!

Unable to entice even one high-level Iraqi military or political leader to defect, the CIA has halted its program designed to turn Iraqi leadership on Saddam. Some of those approached were fearful of retribution or had been rewarded by the regime for past loyalty. But most rebuffed the CIA because of animosity toward the US.

Civilians flee Basra with little more than their lives, not sure whom to trust. Equally wary allied forces continue to engage Iraqi fighters.
They were afraid.

Afraid of Saddam Hussein's troops inside the city who they said were executing people freely, afraid of the forces outside the city whose intentions they did not yet know and afraid of what would come as their supplies of food and water continued to dwindle.

"We have nothing," said Saeed, a young man from the nearby town of Zubayr. He was trying to salvage scrap from a car that was little more that a charred skeleton. "No water, no food, no electricity, nothing."

Full Story St. Petersburg Times
-- Information from the New York Times and Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.

Saddam’s Disinformation and Propaganda 1990-2003

Main Tools of Iraqi Disinformation:
Staged suffering and grief
Co-location of military assets and civilians
Restricting journalists’ movements
False claims or disclosures
False man-in-the-street interviews
Self-inflicted damage
On-the-record lies
Covert dissemination of false stories
Censorship
Bogus, edited, or old footage and images
Fabricated documents

By Gethin Chamberlain, with the Black Watch, near Basra
31 March 2003

It was the tank crew who spotted them first, four men in civilian clothing jumping out of the back of a pick-up truck carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in the heart of Zubayr.

Corporal Mark Harvey was the first of the snipers to react, dropping to his knee and fixing the man carrying the RPG in his sights, one shot, a moving target, the militia man dropping like a stone, dead before he hit the ground. A clean shot to the head.

Full Story Independent UK

Since the start of the war, U.S.-led forces have been bombing targets in and around Baghdad. Below is a look at damage areas in Baghdad caused by those strikes. The satellite images are courtesy of Digital Globe. Pre-strike images were taken on Sept. 2, 2002. Post-strike images were taken on March 27, 2003.

The conflict in Iraq has left the United Nations World Food Programme facing its biggest challenge since the organisation began, its director has said.

James Morris, executive director of the WFP, said that the agency would need up to $1.3bn in order to feed Iraq's 27 million-strong population for the next six months.

Full Story BBC

USAID Website Info

UN Office of the Iraq Program Oil for Food

WASHINGTON The war of words between the United States and Syria escalated on Monday when the Syrian Foreign Ministry said it hoped to "see the invaders defeated in Iraq."
.
The latest bellicose remarks came in response to a speech Secretary of State Colin Powell gave to a Jewish group Sunday night in which he accused Syria of providing "direct support for terrorist groups and the dying regime of Saddam Hussein," adding, "Syria bears the responsibility for its choices, and for the consequences."

Full Story IHT

Huda Ammash – The Head of the Iraqi Biological Weapons Program

Huda Ammash is the daughter of Saleh Mahdi Ammash, a former minister of defensewho was allegedly murdered by Saddam Hussein because he was seen as a potential competitor for power.

A senior Fatah commander in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp denied Sunday a newspaper report that claimed he had dispatched hundreds of volunteer suicide bombers to Iraq to fight US and British coalition forces.

In a similar story, Iran on Tuesday strongly rejected allegations of Tehran's financial assistance to resistant Palestinian groups, including the Islamic Jihad.

After the battle, there was a buzz of excitement among the Royal Marines as groups exchanged stories. A physical training instructor sergeant was generally acclaimed after he was hit on his bullet-proof vest by enemy fire. The shot shattered the heavy ceramic plate in his vest but the sergeant continued to fight and even killed his attacker.

A Royal Marine told of a grenade glancing off his helmet and another told of how an Iraqi colonel driving a car with a briefcase full of cash refused to stop and was shot dead. "I didn't know what to do with the money so I gave it to the kids, bundles of the stuff," the Royal Marine said.

From the Telegraph.

Pace's comments Monday were the strongest indication yet from Washington that the March 19 airstrike may have killed the Iraqi leader. The United States struck the bunker with Tomahawk cruise missiles and a new kind of satellite-guided, bunker-busting bomb known as the EGBU-27. AP, via Yahoo.

From The Sun.

Tech Central Station has an article on what a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) is and how it's been used in other wars.

"The Mighty RPG"

The number of daily bombing runs over Iraq by carrier-based jets in the Mediterranean Sea has doubled since the beginning of the war.

Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, the commander of the Norfolk-based Harry S. Truman and Theodore Roosevelt carrier battle groups, said Monday that twice the number of F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18 Hornets are flying combat missions now compared to March 22, the first day of sorties from the Mediterranean.

(Virginia Pilot Online)

Mahmood, 43, knows the empty promises Westerners can make. He learnt English more than 20 years ago when he was employed by an Italian geological firm in Umm Qasr. Afterwards he joined the army – fighting against Iran during the eight years of conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of young men on both sides. He suffered four shrapnel wounds. He also knows the promises of the Iraqi regime.

He said he and his friends wanted to shed the yoke of the Iraqi regime but not to have Washington or London as their new masters. "We don't want Saddam Hussein. We want freedom," said one. "We want government from the Iraqi people."

(Independent.co.uk)

From the Weekly Standard, quoting Mohammed Al-Douri,

You know, anyway I think he is alive, but the question is not there because Iraq is Iraq and Saddam Hussein is the president of Iraq. Now we have to talk about the war against Iraq, against the people of Iraq, not against one person.

Confirmed by the L.A. Daily News in a brief mention at the bottom of the article.

Weekly Standard draws its own conclusions about his evasiveness. Wonder why this isn't getting more play. It seems big to me.

Via Glenn "InstaPundit" Reynolds

UPDATE: My apologies for not mentioning this. This quote comes from "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert on March 30.

From ABC (US): Top House and Senate lawmakers plan to give President Bush far less flexibility than he wants with the funds Congress will provide for the war with Iraq and other anti-terrorism expenses, lawmakers and aides said Monday.

The Republican-run House and Senate Appropriations committees planned to vote Tuesday on separate packages to begin paying for the conflict. Bush requested $74.7 billion last week and asked lawmakers to approve the funds before leaving for their two-week Easter break on April 11.

A U.S.-led assault on a compound controlled by an Iraqi-based extremist Islamic group has turned up a list of names of suspected militants living in the United States and what may be the strongest evidence yet linking Ansar al-Islam to al-Qaida, coalition commanders said Monday.

The cache of documents, including computer discs and foreign passports belonging to Arab fighters from around the Middle East, could bolster the Bush administration's claims that the two groups are connected, although there was no indication any of the evidence tied Ansar to Saddam Hussein as Washington has maintained.

(AP)

From the New York Times: The main column of American marines set to attack Iraq's capital raced northward today, rolling on the country's main highway to within 70 miles of Baghdad and drawing only minimal resistance. The convoy, including dozens of tanks and some 14,000 combat troops, began its journey in the Iraqi desert and ended 40 miles away, along the newly formed front lines that Iraqi soldiers had retreated from just hours before.

From KFOR Oklahoma City / AP: U-S Central Command is confirming the deaths of four Marines in fighting near Nasiriyah. The men were part of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, and were previously listed as missing. A preliminary U-S military investigation found that they were killed last week as their tank crossed an Iraqi river bridge.

A Gannett news report today tells us what we already know: nobody in the Arabic world believes the U.S. is in Iraq for noble reasons. But it's not because we aren't trying to get the message out.

WASHINGTON - Through Arabic satellite TV channels, radio stations and newspapers, the administration's message about the Iraq war - that it's a noble venture to disarm a dictator and free the Iraqi people - is reaching the Arab and Muslim world.

It's just that almost no one believes it.

"It has fallen on deaf ears,'' said Khaled Al-Maeena, editor in chief of Arab News.

U.S. losing battle worldwide on public relations front

This report includes an excerpt of what media in other nations are saying against the coalition efforts.

Cross-posted with op-ed comments Here

From Lebanon's Monday Morning:

The first days of the war against Iraq have revealed many facts: first, the war is not an easy one for the Americans and the British despite their high-tech superiority. Second, the Iraqis are not ready to rise up against the regime. Third, the victory of this war is not based on who is going to win at the end because the balance of power is clear. It is based on time and casualties of the allied forces ...

... The American miscalculation started when they misunderstood Arab psychology. It is not the first time they have made such a mistake. Arabs and Mideasterners do not always react in the same way as Westerners. The Arabs are opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein, but this does not mean they are pro-American. And if the Iraqi opposition is dealing with the Americans today, it is because this is the only way they have of removing the Iraqi president.

This article from the WaPo adds to and clarifies several of today's news items:

American forces battled Iraqi defenders in fierce street fighting 50 miles south of Baghdad on Monday, pointing toward a drive on the capital. Seven Iraqi women and children were killed at an Army checkpoint when their van refused orders to stop, officials said.

American troops and tanks encountered rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire in a dawn raid against Republican Guard defenders of Hindiyah, a key city astride the Euphrates River. Other units fought to isolate Najaf to the south and prevent attacks on U.S. supply lines.

Despite American warnings, in the last few days Damascus has expedited the passage of volunteers wishing to join the Iraqis in their war against the Americans. Thousands of volunteers, most of them Syrians, are thronging to the Mosul and Kirkuk regions in north Iraq.

Ha'aretz

It started with a few dozen volunteers, mostly from the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Damascus allowed them to cross the border to Iraq at the official border passes in its control. This went on until one of the volunteers' buses was hit in Iraq by a missile from an American plane, killing five passengers.

A few days ago American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Damascus of transferring weapons to Iraq, but did not mention the volunteers. Yesterday the United States warned Syria and Iran again not to cooperate with terrorism and with Saddam Hussein's regime.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said at the AIPAC convention on Sunday that Syria will have to make a critical choice: "Syria can continue direct support for terrorist groups and the dying regime of Saddam Hussein, or it can embark on a different and more hopeful course. Either way, Syria bears the responsibility for its choices, and for the consequences."

The administration made it clear yesterday that since that equipment delivery from Syria to Iraq - which according to Rumsfeld consisted mainly of night-vision goggles - no further deliveries had been observed.

The dozens of volunteers who first passed from Syria to Iraq came mostly from Lebanon and from the Palestinian refugee camps in it. Damascus let them cross into Iraq through the official border passes, and became the first state bordering with Iraq to permit the passage of volunteers. One of the buses driving the volunteers in Iraq was hit by an American missile and five of its passengers were killed.

Recently, the Syrians invited journalists to two border passes on the Iraqi border, claiming they are closed. Now it appears this was a deception. The volunteers are brought to the border far away from the official crossings and allowed to pass over on foot. Nearby, on the Iraqi side of the border, trucks await them.

The trucks do not go east toward Baghdad but northeast, to the Mosul and Kirkuk regions, on routes still free of American military activity. It is not known who receives these people when they arrive, where they stay or how they are organized.

At first, Palestinians and Lebanese were dominant among the volunteers, but as their numbers increased, the number of Syrians among them grew. Now the stream of volunteers is estimated at thousands. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said in an interview two days ago that some 4,000 volunteers had arrived in Iraq from various Arab states. He did not say where they came from, but it is known that the Iranians, Jordanians and Turks do not permit the passage of volunteers to Iraq.

In the past, America has taken a lenient view of the Syrian aid to Iraq. A few months ago, Haaretz first reported of the Syrian military purchases for Iraq in various East European states. The equipment and weapons reached Syria's Atkia harbor and were transferred in convoys to Iraq. To this day, the exact quantities of arms, tank engines and planes transferred to Iraq by the Syrians are not known.

Washington kept its criticism down because the CIA estimated it was better to receive intelligence from Syria on Al-Qaida activities. Apparently this information helped the Americans in the past to crack Al-Qaida cells in Germany and Spain. After the war started, the Pentagon became more critical toward Damascus and the displeasure was reflected in Rumsfeld's accusations against Syria. However, it is not clear whether the Americans will try to intercept the movement of volunteers to Iraq.

Another take on the "who's-driving-the-plan" debate, this time from the Telegraph:

A debate is raging within the Bush administration over whether the "Powell Doctrine" of using overwhelming force was discarded prematurely by Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary.

Although Colin Powell, the secretary of state, has made no public comment on the matter, his supporters say Mr Rumsfeld was guilty of hubris in failing to commit more troops to the Gulf.

"Capt. Chris Carter winced at the risks his men would have to take. Engaged in a lightning-fast raid for this Euphrates River town, they were battling for a bridge when - through the smoke - they saw the elderly woman. She had tried to race across the bridge when the Americans arrived, but was caught in the crossfire."

AP Article

Peter Arnett, the American reporter fired by MSNBC and National Geographic earlier today has reportedly been hired by the Daily Mirror (Fox News and now WaPo).

Link is Washington Post. Thanks "bekker" for the link.

Also here is a link to comments on this subject at my personal blog.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday he has told the families of two missing Newsday journalists last seen in Baghdad that he would try to help track down their whereabouts.

AP Article.

From the New York Times:

The United States, through its past acts, is largely to blame for the failure of Iraq's Shiite majority to rise in revolt against Saddam Hussein, a senior military commander at the United States Central Command said here today.

The Guardian is reporting that Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to Turkey and Brussels, Belgium, for talks on the war with Iraq and postwar reconstruction of that country.

From WaPo:

A U.S.-led assault on a compound controlled by an Iraqi-based extremist Islamic group has turned up a list of names of suspected militants living in the United States and what may be the strongest evidence yet linking Ansar al-Islam to al-Qaida, coalition commanders said Monday.

Brit Hume is interviewing Ralph Peters right now.

The Defense Department is drafting a plan that would bar major international oil companies from helping reconstruct Iraq's oil fields if they already do business in neighboring Iran, according to U.S. officials and Middle East analysts.

The plan - should it become President Bush's formal policy - appears certain to further anger European nations that already are upset that their companies have been frozen out of other major reconstruction contracts in favor of U.S. firms.

(Knight Ridder)

George Galloway MP declared a traitor by The Sun for backing Saddam.

After falling short in the Security Council, Arab envoys decided on Monday to seek an emergency session of the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly to revive their campaign for an immediate end to the war in Iraq.

"The point of the request is to save the lives of Iraqi civilians," one Arab diplomat said.

"We will ask for a cease-fire and a return to peaceful disarmament in Iraq," said the envoy, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Unlike the 15-nation Security Council, whose resolutions can be binding under international law, the General Assembly can make only political statements expressing the sense of the international community.

(Reuters)

Video is available online of the firefight mentioned here (and here, and on Fox) earlier:

Long, slightly edited but voiceover-free footage

A little more, plus repeats with voiceover commentary

Greg Kelly finally checks in to explain it all

Apparently, the Saudis are having a hard time maintaining their American hardware now that their American mechanics are a little busy elsewhere...

ARAB NEWS: Fighter Jet Catches Fire

A Saudi Royal Air Force F-15 C fighter jet caught fire yesterday while attempting to take off from an air base in the northwest of the Kingdom, but the pilot escaped unhurt, the Defense Ministry said. The plane lost its nose wheel and the fuselage scraped along the runway sparking a blaze, a ministry spokesman said in statement quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

“The pilot managed to get out of the aircraft which was loaded with ammunition,” the statement added. The plane, from King Faisal Air Base near Tabuk, was setting off on a “routine patrol” inside the Kingdom, the official said.

Instead of using an F-15, maybe the Saudi pilot should have just used a boxcutter to borrow a jetliner to do his patrol?