The ground war in Iraq is moving at a quick clip in places, while Iraqi military opposition appears to be slowing down the progress in others. The intensity of air attacks, on the other hand, continues unchanged and additional targets in the north have been hit, besides attacks on the holy cities of Karbala. The main fighting by the Iraqi military is located in the outskirts of cities and towns that the Anglo-American forces are trying to control. The mobile columns of these forces had bypassed the cities like Nasiriya and even Basra in their dash to the north. It would appear that even the port town of Umm Qasr close to the Kuwait-Iraq border was still being brought under control on Monday hen US forces claimed the capture of the local Baath party headquarters. The fighting at Nasiriya seem to be continuing where at least a dozen US soldiers have been missing after the Iraqi army units laid an ambush. Air support by missile and gun firing Cobra helicopters were repeatedly called in to soften the Iraqi positions. CNN pictures tend to convey the impression that the fighting is located in the outskirts rather than in the central areas of the city. This is also what seems to be happening in Basra. But this process should not be given any undue weightage since mopping up operations to make even the outskirts secure would go on and fire-fights in the process should be expected. It would not make sense for the Anglo-American forces to occupy these cities till the end of the war itself when collapse may take place because of the disintegration of the centre of gravity in Baghdad. It’s the battle for Baghdad that would remain significant. Meanwhile, the advance toward Baghdad continues, perhaps less rapidly now since the terrain is less of open desert and more of cultivated areas north of An Najaf. US Central Command’s Deputy Commander has been reported to say that there has been ‘‘no coherent military move’’ by the Iraqi forces since the war started. This reinforces the assessment that Iraqis are likely to concentrate on guerrilla tactics and not defend each and every strong point. But they have deployed regular forces in and around cities even in the south. These would provide the bases for launching guerrilla attacks. Iraqi artillery has been pounding US positions outside Basra and mortar fire at Nasiriya symbolise this strategy where the US retaliation includes the use of accurate aerial firepower the employment of which has been made completely easy by the total air superiority that Anglo-American forces enjoy in Iraq. Iraq claimed the shooting down of two US attack helicopters and displayed one on television. The helicopter was downed in the open agricultural fields somewhere in the region of Karbala nearly 100-km from Baghdad. No military unit was to be seen in television pictures and nor was the sight anywhere near any building. The claim that the helicopter was shot down by farmers (with one shown on camera with a WW-II vintage bolt action rifle) may not be tenable, but Iraqis seem to try and get the maximum mileage out of the situation to boost morale of their people and forces. (Air Commodore (retd) Jasjit Singh, editorial consultant to The Indian Express, will analyse the war daily. Readers can send their queries to him at jasjitsingh@expressindia.com)
