120 Iraqi armoured vehicles heading towards the Al faw peninsular. A strange move?
Coalition warplanes are attacking a huge convoy of tanks and armoured personnel carriers which are heading south east from Basra towards the al-Faw peninsula.
Well the column after being spotted by UK radar is being bombed as I write.
I thought the’d figured out that being out in the open against the ‘allies’ was a bad idea.
Additional information that a very large convoy(1000+ vehicles) is coming down from Baghdad. Very Very Very dumb.
Weather forcast is for completely calm winds for the next 6 days. Sandstorm will not cover them. Perfect conditions for Chem weapons though…
My guess is that they will let them go until they are fully committed, then seal off the front and the back of the column. Another “Valley of Death” coming…
Does it strike you that the only fight the Iraqi’s have won in the last 30 years is against Kuwait and unarmed civilians?
I think they have finally figured they are going to die either way in Baghdad or in the south so while they have the chance thay can try to "strategically" impede even further the allied forces by engaging in front line battle? I agree it doesnt make much sense
as long as baghdad doesn't fall there won't be much chance of a surrender
This southward march of 1000+ armoured vehicles coupled with Northward march from Basrah may be the last do-or-die option for the Iraqis. They are marching from to create a bottle neck of the coalition 3rd infantry division. But like some of you said, ground force without air support is worthless. Let's see what happens.
Links please.
Funguy, move out of Basra is toward the SOUTHeast. They are not linking up, maybe running to Iran?
Have to wonder though... this is suicide.. bad military tactic on their part. But, with the weather clearing it does make conditions more conducive to chemical attacks... let's hope that's not what it is....
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*Originally posted by spoon: *
it does make conditions more conducive to chemical attacks... let's hope that's not what it is....
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Why not, do you think defending his home by all means necessary is not the right thing to do.?
But unfortunately he might not have enough WMD to wipe out entire terrorist army of invaders thats why they are there in the first place.
All i can think of is a last Suicide attack on the US base in kuwait itself. Take out the base of operations with chemical weapons if they have any. Massive damage and a final defiant "fact off"
I doubt they'd reach the base if they are coming under attack from the air right now.
They wouldnt make it, unless they have something up their sleeve. Never doubt a boxed in army. They can do some really messed up and daring stuff.
CM it's open desert and only rain predicted next 24 hours.. which will further clear things down.. it's a suicidal move in light of the coalition's air superiority..
Sucidial yes. But you never know. I am keeping a wait and see approach. Not really in to "shock and awe".
Saddam is not dumb he exactly knows what he is up to. They are not that unexperienced as was the TALIBAN.
Apparently the column was in an offensive posture, but is being relentlessly attacked from the air.
There have been suggestions that the column is escaping insurrection in Basra.
But from here it looks suicidal.
I also find it a strange move at this stage in the war. They're basically going to get hit from the sky. I don't see the logic in putting all that equipment and troops into harms way like that in the open.
Well lets wait and see when the dust settles....
I was reading an interesting comment made by an old Iraqi farmer, he said something to the effect of a small town in the south the mighty rambos couldn’t wrestle from few hundred poorly armed rag tag fighters what will they do in Baghdad..
They were betting on massive uprising and hope of triggering a coup that still is the best bet if that is not going to happen Baghadad == Stalingrad
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/international/worldspecial/26STRA.html?th
U.S. Shifting Focus of Land Campaign to South
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
AMP DOHA, Kuwait, March 25 — Allied forces have shifted the focus of their land campaign in Iraq to concentrate on defeating the fedayeen and other militias serving Saddam Hussein in the south before beginning the battle for Baghdad, senior officers said tonight.
The American strategy had been to bypass Iraq’s southern cities and drive toward the capital to take on the Republican Guard and ultimately topple Mr. Hussein’s government.
But the resistance from the militia groups to the rear of the advancing allies has been so stiff that commanders have concluded that this Iraqi threat has to be addressed first.
The attack on the Republican Guard will be delayed while American and British forces fight in and around Iraq’s southern cities.
Allied commanders sought to dispel any suggestion that the delay would be long, suggesting that it would be measured in days, not weeks.
“We will go to where the enemy is,” a senior American military official said tonight.
Indeed, today, while the British were moving to the outskirts of Basra, forces from the American Seventh Cavalry Regiment fought a fierce battle near Najaf with what was reported to be a mixture of fedayeen and regular troops.
As many as 450 Iraqis were killed. In Nasiriya, American marines captured about 170 paramilitary fighters in a hospital that they had turned into a outpost, and confiscated weapons caches and gear to protect against chemical weapons, American military officials said.
The marines also recovered a T-55 tank, over 3,000 chemical suits with masks, and Iraqi munitions and military uniforms, the United States Central Command said.
The forces available to attack the paramilitary groups include Special Operations forces, light infantry and mechanized units. American military officials said they intend to cut off the routes to the southern cities and, if necessary, send forces into those cities and towns to take the fight to the Iraqis.
The aim will be to avoid street-to-street fighting and to direct attacks against the command centers, weapon caches and hide-outs used by the fedayeen — a group of some 60,000 fighters said to be commanded by Mr. Hussein’s son Uday — hard-core members of the ruling Baath Party and other Iraqi security forces.
That change of plan commits allied forces to some form of urban warfare in southern Iraq. Today, the British around Basra called in an air attack on the Baath Party headquarters. American satellite-guided JDAM bombs turned the building into a pile of rubble, allied officials said.
Allied military officials said the new approach was necessary to protect the long supply lines upon which the American military relies to support the advance of the Army and the Marines on Baghdad.
The shift in tactics is also of psychological importance: to demonstrate to Iraqis in the south — overwhelmingly Shiite Muslims — that allied forces are prepared to encourage and protect any rebellion against Mr. Hussein.
The Bush administration and the British government had hoped that allied troops would be hailed as liberators, a development that might mollify critics of the war, especially in the Arab world. But many Shiites have been sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see whether the Americans or Mr. Hussein will prevail.
Shiites in the south recall the Persian Gulf war in 1991, when the administration of President Bush’s father called for the Iraqi people to get rid of their dictator but did not intervene when the Shiites began to rise up.
“We are going to prosecute this fight in a violent manner,” Maj. Gen. J. D. Thurman, the chief operations officer for the land war command, said. “We must make the people know we are prepared to take care of them.”
The new strategy was in evidence today. British forces, under the command of Maj. Gen. Robin Brims, moved to cut off Basra from other Iraqi forces by using air power to take out a bridge and by repositioning ground forces.
The British moves came amid reports of rebellion in the Shiite-dominated city and harsh reprisals by security forces loyal to Mr. Hussein’s government.
A woman who waved to British forces on the outskirts of the city was later found hanged, an American officer said, and the Iraqis moved D-30 artillery in place to shell rebellious residents.
A cache of arms was found at Tallil Air Base, near Nasiriya. American officials said the fedayeen were retrieving the weapons from a bunker.
American officials had anticipated that they would have to confront the fedayeen, but the general assumption was that they would primarily be a problem in Baghdad.
Not quite…read on. 
Iraq troops engage US forces
US and UK forces have engaged in fierce fighting in at least three major encounters across southern Iraq as they encounter stiffer resistance than they had been expecting. US troops and members of Iraq’s Fedayeen units have fought a major battle in the town of Samawah, the site of a crucial bridge on the way to Baghdad. US forces have also bombed the town of Nasiriya after coming under fire overnight from defenders - as many as 30 US soldiers have been injured, some of them possibly by so-called friendly fire. And UK tanks destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks and a number of armoured vehicles attempting to break out of the city of Basra. Separately, hundreds of American troops have parachuted into northern Iraq in the first big US deployment north of Baghdad - what one unnamed US defence official called “the beginning of the northern front”. The Pentagon said the paratroops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade had taken control of a key airfield in Kurdish-controlled territory, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) north-east of the city of Irbil.
Key supply routes
Throughout Thursday the Iraqi capital Baghdad has come under renewed bombardment from coalition war planes, with powerful blasts reported in both the centre and outskirts of the city. In the fighting in the south, the Americans used heavy guns and tank shells as well as Apache helicopters to try to dislodge an estimated 1,500 Fedayeen fighters guarding a bridge across the Euphrates river. The US needs to capture the town to secure its supply routes as its forces move north, according to the BBC’s Gavin Hewitt, who is travelling with the troops. In the encounter near Basra, UK Challenger tanks destroyed 14 Iraqi T-55 tanks on Thursday morning. That engagement follows an overnight encounter in which US and UK air strikes and artillery engaged a column of Iraqi vehicles in the area.
Baghdad casualties
There have also been reports that dozens of US Marines were injured by other American troops in the clashes around the town of Nasiriya.As many as 37 Marines are believed to have been injured, some critically. Reports from the area suggest that two US units sent to attack a group of Iraqis firing on them ended up shooting at each other instead of the hostile troops.
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*Originally posted by Ohioguy: *
Funguy, move out of Basra is toward the SOUTHeast. They are not linking up, maybe running to Iran?
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<~~~~ No military expert here
I was thinking maybe towards the Port City of Al Qasr. Isn't that southeast? Perhaps to try to cut of supply lines? This is where humanitarian aid is to come in but maybe military aid needs to come in that way also?