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Invasion in quagmire

US chopper shot down in Karbala; pilots taken as PoWs; 62 civilians killed; fierce fight rages on all fronts; street combat in the offing

STAR DESK
Battlefield casualties of the US-British forces, civilian deaths and stiff resistance by Iraqi troops on the fifth day of the invasion indicate a tough phase of the war with imminent urban combat.
Many of the earlier US and British claims of winning battles and broken down morale of Iraqi soldiers proved all but wrong. Reality belied expectations of surrenders by Iraqi soldiers in their thousands and civilian cheers for the invading army.
Iraq's morale got another boost yesterday when it shot down a US Apache helicopter in a grassy field in Karbala and captured two pilots. Iraq claimed two choppers have been downed.
"A small number of peasants shot down two Apaches, "
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said.
In the fierce battle of Nassiriyah, 10 US marines were killed yesterday and another 12 are missing, feared to be taken prisoners by the Iraqi forces. Two British soldiers are also missing in southern Iraq after their vehicle was ambushed.
A dozen of wounded US forces were flown to Germany for treatment.
The joint forces have called it "the toughest day" of all. To Iraqis, it was the "dark day for coalition".
And as the war has moved to a tactical phase aimed at ground battle, Saddam Hussein in a televised address urged his troops to hit the enemy hard and slit their throats.
"Cut their throats. The enemy is stuck in Iraqi territory. Hit it," he said, looking calm and confident.
President Bush warned Iraqis on Sunday they would be tried for war crimes if they abused prisoners after Iraq displayed five captured US soldiers and several bloodied corpses on television.
War rages
in frontiers
US marines bombarded the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriyah with artillery yesterday afternoon.
"We can see impact flashes in the city," Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire said from a position to the south of the city, the key to opening a second route across the Euphrates river and north to Baghdad.
U.S forces took significant casualties in fighting to try to secure two bridges over the Euphrates river about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad, when they were held up by Iraqi irregulars.
What surprised military analysts is that only some 500 Iraqi soldiers are holding up a much larger and highly equipped US force of about 5,000 troops in Nassiriyah.
British and US forces are facing trouble there, as many Iraqi troops are now donning civilian clothes for a surprise attack.
"The whole regiment we're travelling with is just stuck here," said Maguire, with the Marines First Regiment south of Nassiriyah. "They need those bridges."
In the port city of Umm Qasr, earlier US claims are again proven wrong as pockets of resistance are still there. Troops are moving from building to building and no clear information on the situation is available.
Basra is under heavy bombardment and hundreds of elite Iraqi troops are now ready to take on the US and UK ground troops.
Iraqi troops pounded joint forces outside the ancient city and British forces responded, BBC said. This contradicts earlier British military claims of no fights there.
In the north, more air strikes hit in or around Mosul, said Reuters correspondent Jon Hemming, watching from Kurdish-held terri-
tory, where military activity has been increasing.
Warplanes also pounded Iraqi bunkers on hilltops overlooking the Kurdish-held town of Chamchamal, in the first attack in the area since the war started, a Kurdish commander told Reuters.
In Baghdad, bombings are intermittent, rocking buildings and sending people to shelter. US forces are believed to be within 160 kilometre of the city waiting for further instructions.
Deaths galore
The so-called precision-guided missiles have landed on civilian areas, killing 62 and wounding over 400.
In Baghdad, 194 people had been wounded in bombing but none had been killed. The most deaths were 30 in Babel, south of Baghdad, and 14 in Basra, Iraq claimed.
There were also deaths and injuries in the southern towns of Najaf and Karbala, in the southern province Qadisiya and in the northern provinces of Ninawa and Salah ad Din.
Television pictures showed houses wrecked and civilian body bags.
Iraqi troops casualty is unknown yet as neither the joint forces nor the their counterpart gave out any figure.