On Tuesday, U.S. B-1, B-2, and B-52 heavy bombers continued
attacks on targets connected to the regime of Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein as U.S. officials said Saddam and his family may already have fled the country.
The attacks appeared to focus on three Republican Guard
divisions
stationed mostly to the south of Baghdad which are known as the Medina,
Hammurabi
and Al Nida divisions, Middle East Newsline reported. The guard has six divisions.
Officials said the Iraqi divisions have not been in radio
communications
with military commanders in Baghdad. "There's no evidence of coordinated
actions on the battlefield by these units," Gen. Peter Pace, vice
chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "They're being destroyed in place
without much leadership from above."
Assistant Defense Secretary Victoria Clarke said the intense attacks
on
the palaces of Saddam and his sons have prompted attempts by their
families
to flee Iraq. She did not identify those who have already left Iraq, but
officials said the United States suspects that Saddam and his family
might
have already fled the country.
"Some family members, including family members of very senior
officials,
are trying to get out of the country," Ms. Clarke said. "We've not seen
his
sons. We've seen evidence that family members are fleeing the country or
trying to flee the country."
Late Sunday evening, U.S. military units reached the outskirts of
Baghdad.
Officials said U.S. Army and Marine Corps units reached the southern
edge of the Iraqi capital. They said the units were
conducting what they termed probing missions to determine the extent of
Iraqi defenses around the city.
The U.S. forces are also meant to ambush Republican Guard divisions
that are withdrawing from their current positions toward Baghdad, officials
said.
Five Republican Guard divisions are in or around Baghdad and at least
one
brigade of an unspecified division was said to have been destroyed in
fighting overnight Tuesday.
"There are maneuvers going to try to destroy those divisions that
stand
in our way," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, director for operations at
the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
The U.S. forces are expected to be reinforced over the next few days
as
the U.S. Air Force reduces the strength of the Iraqi Republican Guard.
Officials said the United States is deploying fresh troops in Iraq at a
rate
of 2,000 soldiers per day, with forces approaching Baghdad from the
north,
south and west. So far, the United States and its allies have deployed
more
than 300,000 soldiers in the Persian Gulf.
U.S. officials said coalition forces have also eroded Iraqi air
defenses
and communications systems around Baghdad. They said Iraq is still
believed
to have some anti-aircraft assets in Baghdad that have not been employed
to
avoid U.S. bombing.
"We fly effectively in Baghdad every day and night," McChrystal
said.
"The reason we don't claim air supremacy there is because they haven't
been
using all their early warning and fire control radars. They've been
keeping
them
off to avoid them getting destroyed."
McChrystal told a Defense Department briefing on Monday that the
U.S.
Air Force dropped 3,000 precision-guided bombs on Iraqi forces over the
weekend. In all, more than 8,000 such weapons have been employed in
attacks
on regime targets.
"We are seeing some movement of Republican Guard formations as
well,"
the general said. "What we think we're seeing them do is moving to
reinforce
other [units] that have [been] severely degraded."
