'750 Iraqis' killed in combat

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At least 750 Iraqi troops were reported killed today after the biggest battle of the war so far erupted in the Euphrates Valley, 95 miles south of Baghdad.

The massive firefight saw US troops come under attack from Iraqis with rocket-propelled grenades, tanks exchanged fire on both sides and vicious close-quarters skirmishes continued even after the Iraqis took heavy losses.

The fighting happened as the US 3rd Infantry Division's 7th Cavalry were crossing the Euphrates heading north to the capital yesterday. There were no clear reports of American casualties after yesterday's attack, the biggest face-to-face confrontation of the war so far.

But American sources were claiming that hundreds of Iraqis were wiped out. It appears the conflict began suddenly after the northbound US convoy was crossing a temporary bridge over the Euphrates after the original span had been blown up by Iraqis.

One eye-witness said the US troops built the temporary bridge over the valley but after up to a dozen M1 Abrams battle tanks had crossed, it collapsed.

The US armoured vehicles became stranded and the Iraqis launched their opportunist strike.

US officials said the Iraqi force could have been a large encampment of Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary fighters.

Central Command sources confirmed that two of the M1 Abrams tanks were lost, raising fears for their four-men crews.

The tanks were apparently hit by wire-guided missiles fired from the back of Iraqi pick-up trucks.

At first, the Pentagon said, the Americans were forced to fight without air cover from the nearby US 101 Air Assault Division because of a massive sandstorm.

The 7th Cavalry responded with tanks, machineguns and semi-automatic weapons in what appears to have been the bloodiest confrontation yet seen.

A Pentagon official said: "They did damage a couple of pieces of our gear but we've had no reports of casualties on our side.

"But apparently there are some reports that we may have killed quite a few of them. Estimates differ."

In fact, US television put the death toll at 750.

Pentagon sources said the Iraqi forces were on foot and it was unclear if they were regular army units that had moved down to fight US and British troops, members of the Fedayeen, or loyalists of Saddam's Ba'ath Party.

Once the sandstorms had died the Americans were able to provide air cover, putting a "defensive bubble" around the tanks. It is thought US personnel were then rescued.

But first reports from the area suggest that while the initial Iraqi attack was comprehensively beaten back, close-quarters fighting was continuing in urban areas of Najaf despite the weather worsening.

The Iraqi death toll cannot be independently confirmed, but a Reuters correspondent with US forces near Najaf said officers in the field described a furious two-hour battle between American tanks and Iraqi fighters, which ended at about 7pm UK time yesterday.

Commanders on the ground gave no information on casualties on either side beyond saying that they expected the Iraqi death toll to be "very high".

There were also concerns that Republican Guard reinforcements

could be heading for the area from the north from the outer ring of Saddam Hussein's "red ring" defence line around Baghdad.

Crack troops from Saddam's Al Quds militia were also said to have been involved in the fighting.

The militia, known for their forbidding-looking balaclava style of dress, take their name from the Arabic for Jerusalem, which means literally The Grapes.

They are Baa'th Party loyalists and devout Muslims recruited specifically to fight alongside Palestinian guerrillas in the war against Israel. But they are acting as a violent force throughout their own country.

One reporter with the US forces said: "This was a very substantial engagement in involving tanks on both sides and hundreds, indeed thousands, of disembarked infantry."

The US tanks were destroyed by TOW (Tube-launched, Opticallytracked, Wire-guided) missiles, which are fired from a tripod mounted on the back of a vehicle.

The missile can be fired from a distance of more than two miles, takingup to 20 seconds to reach its target-The operator has to keep the cross-hairs of the sight centred on the target to guide the missile.

The deployment of such hi-tech missiles will raise fears among American planners that Iraqi guerrillas have access to such devastating weaponry able to pierce the armour of the M1 Abrams, one of the world's best-protected tanks.

The area around Najaf, a city holy to Shi'ite Muslims, is one of the most sacred sites for Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslims.

Najaf is the also site of the tomb of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Shi'ites aspire to bury their dead in its cemetery, which stretches for miles and is the largest in the Muslim world.

US military leaders said the invasion force had now knifed more than 200 miles into Iraqi territory and reached the "doorstep of Baghdad".

But the Pentagon official told reporters: "I don't think this is the start of the battle of Baghdad. No."

The 7th Cavalry is part of the army force driving on Baghdad.

 

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