ABCNEWS Journalists Report From Gulf
April 2 -- Troops continue to surround Baghdad in anticipation for a showdown with the Iraqi Republican Guard. The times on the following dispatches from ABCNEWS correspondents are all approximate.
Ted Koppel, with the 3rd Infantry Division seizing a bridge 20 miles from Baghdad7 p.m. ET, 4 a.m. Thursday Iraq
After breaking through the Karbala Gap under cover of a devastating blanket of multiple-launch rockets, elements of the 3rd drove towards the Euphrates river, leaving a trail of burned out Iraqi vehicles. … After hitting the far side of the bridge with rockets, artillery, cluster bombs, and the withering fire of low-flying Apache helicopters, an armored company drove its M-1 tanks and Bradleys across the Euphrates. … Contact with the enemy lasted hours after the bridge had already fallen. But the expected heavy resistance from Republican Guard divisions never materialized.
Richard Engel, Baghdad7 p.m. ET, 4 a.m. Thursday Iraq
Walking through the streets of Baghdad today, it's clear that this war is not popular. I ask this man if he thinks the war is about liberating him from Saddam's brutal regime. "Liberation?" he asked me. "Who asked for America to liberate us?" We were interrupted by a pair of jets streaking overhead, their smoke trails visible against a backdrop of thick black smoke from oil fires.
People here are only told by their government that the war is a seemingly inexhaustible series of Iraqi military victories. [They] hardly seem to notice that some coalition [forces] are now only miles from the city. And those who may want to take a stand against the regime are kept silent by the thousands of armed men from Saddam's ruling Baath Party who are watching for any sign of coalition troops or civil unrest.
Don Dahler, with the 101st Airborne Division, near Najaf, Iraq7 p.m. ET, 4 a.m. Thursday Iraq
The 101st Airborne entered Najaf with the aim of clearing out paramilitary fighters loyal to Saddam Hussein. Whenever the 101st's scout teams spotted armed Iraqis, mortar fire was called in. Many other residents seemed eager to help, in one case warning of "car bombs" on a bridge. They turned out to be landmines, about 40 of them. The mined bridge slowed the progress of one of the division's battalions, but only briefly. Then the sweep to the city center began in earnest.
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