SOUTHERN IRAQ (Reuters)
U.S. and British invasion forces hit Iraqi Republican Guards defending the approaches to Baghdad yesterday and pushed to within 60 miles (100 km) of the capital as a humanitarian emergency began to develop in southern Iraq.
The Pentagon said U.S. forces had advanced more than 200 miles (320 km) into Iraq and were beginning to confront an elite division of the Republican Guards deployed to defend the capital.
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice-director for operations for the U.S. military's Joint Staff said: "Coalition forces have engaged Republican Guard Medina division troops with attack helicopters."
The U.S. military acknowledged losing one helicopter. Iraqi television later showed two men it said were the crew of the downed Apache helicopter. They appeared to be in good health.
In the capital, Saddam Hussein's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told a news conference the Iraqi leadership was in good shape despite five days of heavy bombing.
He said Saddam, shown twice on Iraqi television yesterday, was "in full control of the army and the country" and that his enemies had underestimated his popularity.
Warnings intensified of a humanitarian crisis as fighting in the south delayed entry of much needed aid and water grew short in Iraq's second city, Basra.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent action to make sure there was enough water in Basra, a city of some two million people. Arab nations asked for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting but it was not clear if or when it would take place.
The United States has promised to begin delivering aid within a few days, as soon as it secures necessary ports and supply routes and takes control of population centres that were bypassed by invasion forces.
President George W. Bush asked Congress for $75 billion in emergency funding to pay for the military campaign in Iraq and to reward key allies, including $3.5 billion as a downpayment on Iraq's reconstruction and for humanitarian relief.
At least six large explosions struck Baghdad late yesterday, shaking the city and sending huge balls of fire rising into the sky, Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki reported.
U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the overall war commander, said his forces were intentionally skirting enemy formations in their advance on Baghdad.
"Progress toward our objectives has been rapid and in some cases dramatic," Franks said, despite 24 hours of setbacks that included the killing and capture of U.S. soldiers and the loss of the helicopter.
The United States, backed by Britain, launched the war to oust Saddam and destroy the chemical and biological weapons they said he had been concealing. So far, they have found nothing to contradict Iraq's denial that it has such weapons.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the British parliament that the "vital goal" was to reach the Iraqi capital as swiftly as possible.
"Coalition forces led by the American 5th Corps are on the way to Baghdad. As we speak, they are about 60 miles south of Baghdad near Kerbala," Blair said.
"It is a little way from there that they will encounter the Medina Division of the Republican Guard who are defending the route to Baghdad. This will be a crucial moment."
A U.S. official said Bush would meet Blair tomorrow or Thursday for the first time since the start of the war.
A British soldier was killed in action yesterday as he tried to calm rioting Iraqi civilians, bringing the total British dead and missing to 19. Iraqi civilians so far have shown little enthusiasm for the invaders.
Financial markets have begun to factor in a longer war than appeared last week. In New York, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Index dropped 3.6 percent, its biggest single day loss since last Sept. 27. Oil prices and gold rose, while the dollar slipped.
