- (CNN) -- Coalition forces advanced toward the Iraqi capital
Monday, with ground troops moving from the north, south, and west and precision-guided
bombs reducing key targets into mountains of smoke and rubble.
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- Large explosions and anti-aircraft tracer fire lit the
night skies over Baghdad just after midnight Tuesday, the fifth such bombing
wave in about 24 hours. Among the buildings destroyed Monday was an Iraqi
air force complex.
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- Coalition forces early Tuesday also shelled Nasiriya,
home to key bridges across the Euphrates River in southern Iraq. The city
has been the scene of the most intense fighting to date: Ten Marines were
killed in combat there Sunday and 16 are considered missing, a senior commander
in the battle told CNN.
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- They blew up anti-aircraft guns, rocket propelled grenades
and thousands of rounds of ammunition left by the enemy -- explosions that
shook the earth and turned the sky black with smoke.
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- The fierce resistance from Iraqi troops in the south
also resulted in the first British combat death of the 5-day-old war, a
soldier killed in action Monday near Basra in southern Iraq. Two British
soldiers are missing after an attack Sunday on their vehicles in southern
Iraq.
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- U.S. and coalition planes also struck the northern Iraqi
city of Mosul for the third night in a row early Tuesday. Large explosions
and anti-aircraft fire could be seen by a CNN crew in Kalak, about 28 miles
east of Mosul.
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- In the fifth day of ground combat operations, Secretary
of State Colin Powell expressed satisfaction with the progress of the U.S.-led
war.
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- "It's amazing what those soldiers of ours and those
Marines of ours and airmen and sailors have done," he told Fox News.
"They've penetrated hundreds of miles inside Iraq, only 50 to 60 miles
away from Baghdad in less than five days. That's remarkable."
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- Though a number of U.S. and British soldiers have been
wounded or killed, "overall, in the sweep of things, casualties have
been light," he said. "No question about it, they will prevail
and this regime will be taken down."
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- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said as coalition forces
draw close to Baghdad, they will face battle with Iraq's most elite military
units positioned to barricade Baghdad.
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- "They will encounter the Medina Division of the
Republican Guard," he said. "This will plainly be a crucial moment."
(Full story)
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- Blair will come to the United States this week for talks
with President Bush at Camp David, sources told CNN Monday.
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- In Qatar, Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central
Command, warned Monday that the regime of Saddam Hussein may feel more
pressure to use weapons of mass destruction as coalition forces tighten
the ring around Baghdad.
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- Helicopters fly in 'hornet's nest'
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- Before dawn Monday, the V Corps, 11th Attack Helicopter
Regiment, targeted Iraqi positions between the cities of Hillah and Karbala.
U.S. Apache attack helicopters fought a fierce battle with Iraq's Republican
Guard units.
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- One U.S. pilot described the situation as a "hornet's
nest," with Iraqis peppering helicopters with small arms and anti-aircraft
fire from "all sides." Most pilots said they sustained 15 to
20 rounds, including a rocket-propelled grenade in one instance. (Full
story)
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- Later Monday, Abu Dhabi TV aired video shot by Iraqi
TV in Baghdad of two U.S. pilots Iraq claims it captured after their Apache
attack helicopter went down near Karbala. The footage shows Chief Warrant
Officers Ronald D. Young Jr. and David S. Williams, wearing flight suits
and appearing to be in good condition.
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- Iraq's top diplomat said Monday in New York that the
U.S.-led war against Iraq could last for years.
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- "I don't think it'll be a short war," Ambassador
Mohammed Aldouri told CNN. "If the Americans will not stop this aggression,
the war will continue for years."
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- The first injured U.S. troops arrive at Ramstein Air
Base in Germany.
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- The Iraqi people, he said, "are defending very,
very well their independence, their dignity and their own people."
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- Throughout Iraq, he said, Iraqi civilians have joined
the fight. "We'll see a unified society, a unified army," he
said.
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- But Franks said coalition forces have taken 3,000 "enemy
prisoners." Coalition officials have said thousands more Iraqi troops
have put down their weapons and gone home, following U.S. and British instructions.
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- Meanwhile, the Red Cross continued efforts to visit five
U.S. prisoners of war known to be in Iraqi custody. On Sunday, Iraqi television
aired footage showing dead U.S. soldiers and interviews with several members
of the U.S. 507th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss Texas, including Spc.
James Hudson, Pfc. Patrick Miller and Spc. Shoshana Johnson. (Full story)
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- Thirty-nine U.S. and British military personnel have
been confirmed killed since the Iraqi conflict began. (Coalition casualties)
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- Other developments
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- * The deaths of five Syrian civilians in a U.S.
airstrike in northwestern Iraq were "regrettable," a U.S. military
spokesman said Monday. Syrian officials said the dead were among 37 passengers
on a bus about 100 miles south of the Iraq-Syrian border. At the Pentagon,
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said the raid's intended target was a bridge,
and that the bus came into view only after a bomb had been released. (Full
story)
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- * Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo,
Egypt, considered a draft resolution Monday, calling for an urgent U.N.
Security Council meeting to address "the aggression against Iraq."
(Full story)
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- * Coalition warplanes on the USS Theodore Roosevelt
in the eastern Mediterranean are switching strategy from bombing missions
with set targets to missions where they are authorized to attack targets
of opportunity in "air interdiction zones" and to supply close
air support to ground forces if they are summoned, sources said.
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- * Iraqi television aired a defiant speech by Saddam
Hussein early Monday in which the Iraqi leader rallied his troops and promised
victory. "They are in a dilemma; they are in trouble now," Saddam
said of the U.S.-led coalition. "Hate them and strike them."(Full
story)
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- * The king of Jordan refuses to allow coalition
warplanes to fly over his country. "We will not allow any party to
launch any military operation from our airspace against Iraq," King
Abdullah II was quoted as saying in a statement released by the Jordanian
government.
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- * Iraq's deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, rumored
to have been killed in the war's first burst of airstrikes, told reporters
Monday that the Iraqi leadership is in good shape and that Saddam Hussein
has full control of the military and government.
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- * Franks said Monday there is "nothing at all
unexpected" about the "sporadic resistance" encountered
so far, adding that coalition forces will continue to "fight this
on our terms." "Progress toward our objectives has been rapid
and in some cases dramatic," said Franks at a Central Command briefing
in Qatar.
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- * Kuwaiti authorities Monday said they found a bomb
in a car and moved it to a safe place in Kuwait City, where they detonated
it. Police arrested the owner, a European national who was not identified.
No one was hurt, the authorities said.
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- * U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Henry Pete Osman, in charge
of military coordination and liaison for Iraq's northern front, arrived
in the area Monday, signaling the much-anticipated opening of a second
front. More than 200 U.S. forces are now in northern Iraq. Until recently,
some 20 to 30 special operations forces were in the region. The development
came amid discussions between U.S. and Turkish officials on how to deal
with northern Iraq. (Full story)
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- * The first group of wounded U.S. troops arrived
Monday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Their arrival was broadcast live,
showing 12 injured people being carried off a C-141 cargo plane by stretcher
and placed onto waiting medical evacuation buses. (Full story)
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- * President Bush had lunch Monday with the military's
top officers to discuss the war in Iraq and is scheduled to brief key members
of Congress on an emergency war budget request officials said will be for
roughly $75 billion. Bush will visit the Pentagon on Tuesday and U.S. Central
Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday. (Full story)
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- CNN Correspondents Jason Bellini, Karl Penhaul, Nic Robertson,
Walter Rodgers, Brent Sadler, Martin Savidge, Kevin Sites, Barbara Starr
and Alessio Vinci contributed to this report.
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- EDITOR'S NOTE: CNN's policy is to not report information
that puts operational security at risk.
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