[A-List] US imperialism: Iraq

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Lightning strikes to cut casualties in battle for Baghdad
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 23 October 2002

US troops are training for an assault designed to capture Baghdad without
becoming bogged down in a street-by-street, house-by-house dogfight which
could kill or injure one in three of the attacking force.

The new tactics, of "speed, firepower and shock", have also been drawn up to
avoid having to reduce the Iraqi capital to rubble to liberate it from
Saddam Hussein's grasp, a process which would inevitably involve tens of
thousands of civilian as well as military casualties.

The plan is to isolate the city and strike key regime command centres and
strong points with overwhelming force without clearing every room and
alleyway of enemy troops.

Satellite surveillance and spy plane missions in the past two months have
concentrated on identifying the key buildings which would have to be
occupied or destroyed, leaving Iraqi soldiers cut off from orders in small
and vulnerable pockets.

Foreign construction companies have been asked for the blueprints of palace
complexes and government buildings to allow pinpoint targeting.

Officers have drawn on the experience of US units in Mogadishu, Somalia and
Port-au-Prince in Haiti, as well as the bitter lessons learned by Russian
infantry battling their way through the ruins of Grozny, the Chechen
capital.

The plan calls for roadblocks on every route out of Baghdad to prevent
breakouts, reinforcements or resupply of its defenders. All broadcasts by
Saddam or his lieutenants to the outside world would be blocked by
electronic jamming while bombs accurate to within a few yards steadily
shattered his command centres.

Air assault troops sweeping in by helicopter would rope down to rooftops to
capture buildings which dominated main avenues.

Colonel John Nicholson, a pioneering commander of the new, "light" armoured
units, said: "You first isolate the city, then specific targets within that
city. You don't want to take the entire urban sprawl."

US soldiers, already practising in mock-up towns, will try to advance in
darkness through areas which cannot be avoided, using night-vision goggles
and infra-red detectors.

Tests are also being carried out with a special tank-round perfected by the
Israelis and used this year to punch access holes in house walls, without
bringing down the structure, through which troops can move rather than
advancing in the open streets.