A Russian view of the war (April 6)

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

  The English translation, that appears below comes from
    http://www2.iraqwar.ru/index.php?userlang=en

         Jim F.
  ------------------------------------------

April 6th, Morning
Baghdad

By the morning of April 6th an uncertain and quickly
changing situation has developed. Coalition divisions are
continuing to advance toward the city outskirts. The 22nd and
15th expeditionary marine squadrons are trying to break into the
region of military airport ?Rashid? from south-east. Iraqis
are holding the line along the Diyala river and currently the
marines cannot capture beach-heads on the right bank.

A hard situation has formed near the international airport.
The day before yesterday the Iraqi minister of propaganda
claimed that the coalition forces in this region would have
been eliminated by this morning, and the Iraqi command ordered
to storm the airport. At 10am it was attacked by 3 Republican
Guards battalions enforced with militia troops. Americans
requested artillery and aviation support. The battle lasted for
almost 6 hours. After several unsuccessful attacks Iraqis
managed to drive Americans back from the second runway to the
airport building. Currently the coalition forces control the
building itself and the new runway bordering to it. During the
day the foes had to increase their strengths and deploy
reinforcements. By the evening up to 2 regular Iraqi brigades
and 2 thousand militiamen were fighting for the airport.
Americans had to use all available forces of the 3rd Mechanized
Division and 101st Airborne Division to repulse the attacks.
Only assault aircraft and battle helicopters made more than
300 operation flights to this region.

During the fight Iraqis lost up to 20 tanks, 10 APC, about
200 men killed and up to 300 wounded. The American losses
were up to 30 men killed, about 50 wounded, at least 4 tanks,
4 APC and 1 helicopter. But it is impossible to obtain the
exact data yet. By this hour there have been more than 20
flights for evacuation of killed and wounded coalition
soldiers and the command have requested ambulance aviation again.

The combat was so intense that commander of the 3rd Mechanized
Division general-major Bufford Blunt had to issue an order to
organize a false strike. Around 8am from Khan-Azad road junction
an attack was organized in order to demonstrate tank vanguards
of a large subdivision advancing toward Al-Daura from south.
The group was able to reach the outskirts of the town near
the Avajridge village. After entering the village the group
was met by Republican Guards. In direct combat the group lost
2 tanks, 3 APC, 3 men killed, up to 10 wounded and, after
two hours of fighting, withdrew to the main forces. Iraqis
lost 4 tanks, 2 APC and up to 30 men killed.

By the evening the foes reduced their activity and were
regrouping during the last night. Americans are rapidly
fortifying their defense positions and deploying reinforcements
to the airport region, increasing their forces at Khan-Azad
and Abu-Harraib. Iraqis are moving anti-armor divisions
closer to the city outskirts.

Despite the exchange of strikes there are no reasons to
expect any serious attempts to capture the city in the
nearest future. By numerical strength the coalition troops
that have reached the city borders do not meet even the
minimal requirements for storming and heavy urban fights.
Coalition forces by Baghdad number up to 18-20 thousand
men and can be enforced with no more than 3-5 thousand men
while the minimal force necessary to capture a city like
Baghdad equals from 80 to 100 thousand soldiers.

According to weather forecasts, in the coming day the
weather may abruptly change to the worse. The wind is
expected to intensify, visibility may reduce to 200-300 m.

All the claims made by aviation commander of the coalition,
general Michael Mosley, about ??Iraqi army, as an organized
structure consisting of large units, exists no longer?? are
contrary to fact and, according to analytics, are probably
connected with severe pressure put on the military command
by American financial groups that desperately needed good
news from the US-Iraqi front by the end of the financial week.
In fact, the Republican Guards defending Baghdad have not
lost even 5% of their numerical strength and military
equipment. Most of those losses were due to bombardments
and not land combats. The total losses of Iraqi army since
the beginning of the war have not exceeded 5-8% of their
defensive potential. This means the main battles are
still to be seen.

The situation in other sectors of the US-Iraqi front
will be summarized closer to this evening.

[ translated by Necroman ]

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