War: Day 4 – Harder times ahead for U.S. in war

Washington ? The war against Iraq, off to a smooth and potent start, could become more difficult and deadly in the coming days. The tasks ahead may include fighting the battle-ready Republican Guard troops, avoiding chemical attacks, seizing the streets of Baghdad and tracking down Saddam Hussein.

“There will be surprises,” Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S.-led forces, said Saturday. “We have not yet seen them.”

One new complication is how to secure northern Iraq. The U.S. military on Saturday abandoned plans to use Turkish bases to move ground forces there. The United States needs troops in the north not only to fight Iraqi forces, but also to avert possible conflicts between Kurds and neighboring Turkey.

U.S. officials are currently relying on special operations forces in the north, but may have to send conventional forces into the area.

President Bush renewed his warning that the war “could be longer and more difficult” than some think. Franks, in his first news conference since the war’s start Wednesday, spoke of the “potential for days and for weeks ahead” of fighting.

In particular, the six fighting divisions of the elite Republican Guard appear ready for combat and are mostly dug in around Baghdad.

At least one top deputy of Saddam is believed alive and commanding some Iraqi military and security efforts, a senior U.S. official said. That deputy, known as “Chemical Ali,” led the chemical weapons attack against rebellious Kurds in the 1980s that killed thousands of civilians.

That raises the fear that U.S. troops could face chemical or biological attacks. The troops have yet to find weapons of mass destruction, which the White House contended Saddam was concealing and President Bush said was a prime rationale for war.

Saddam himself has proved elusive.

Franks said he did not know if the Iraqi president were alive or dead, after a massive U.S. bombing strike at dawn in Baghdad on Thursday that was intended for him and his sons. More footage of Saddam appeared on Iraqi television Saturday, but it was unclear when it had been taken.

If Saddam or either son is alive and in control, that could mean greater resistance by the better-trained and more loyal Republican Guards as U.S. troops draw near the capital.

¢ Coalition forces pounded Baghdad with impunity in the first daylight air raids of the war. American ships and warplanes launched 500 cruise missiles and several hundred precision weapons on Iraq Saturday.¢ U.S. and British forces tightened the noose around Iraq’s second-largest city, Basra, taking its airport and a bridge.¢ A command tent of the 101st Airborne Division was attacked with grenades at a camp in northern Kuwait, wounding 14 soldiers, four seriously. An American soldier in the division was suspected in the attack.¢ Gen. Tommy Franks promised the campaign would be “unlike any other in history.” In his first comments since the war started, Franks acknowledged resistance from Iraqi forces, and said he had “no idea” where Saddam was — or if he was alive.

“We’ve still got significant Iraqi forces in front of us. They may fight,” said Major Gen. Stanley McChrystal of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

U.S. war planners long have worried these soldiers will try to mount street-to-street fighting inside sprawling Baghdad, leading to both greater U.S. casualties and more deaths among Iraqi civilian men, women and children. Baghdad has about 5 million people.

Such urban fighting — though scattered — already has occurred in the southern seaport of Umm Qasr, now mostly under U.S. control. The possibility of similar fighting in the key southern city of Basra led U.S. and British officials to announce Saturday they will not storm the city, but instead try to gain an Iraqi surrender through defections.

That might not be an option in Baghdad if the Republican Guards choose to fight.

The Iraqis still have workable air defenses, which they are moving around in the obvious hope of saving them for future use, Franks said.

In addition, more than two dozen Scud missile launchers remain unaccounted for from the Gulf War, Franks said, noting that the Iraqis have fired six surface-to-surface missiles into Kuwait in the last few days. None have been Scuds.

In any assault on Baghdad, the deaths of Iraqi civilians would give Saddam’s government a powerful propaganda tool, hurting America’s political aims in the war. Toward that end, Iraq’s foreign minister sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan complaining that Americans were bombing homes, schools, mosques and churches in Baghdad, according to Iraqi television. U.S. officials have said they are being as careful as possible to avoid civilian casualties.

Even the fast and successful pace of the attack so far might cause a problem: The challenge of keeping spread-out troops supplied and moving quickly.

Traffic along one supply route near Nasiriyah in the south was at times so heavy Saturday that the huge military flatbeds and Humvees were brought to a standstill. That could be deadly if Iraqi forces were somehow able to open fire.