Day 17, latest reports (April 5)

Spot1 U.S. and Kurds push back Iraqis

American air strikes and Kurdish ground attacks in the north have driven Irqi forces back from the Kurdish frontier toward Kirkuk, the center of northern Iraq's oil industry. The Kurds are within 20 mils if the city.

 

Spot2 U.S. planes bombard Mosul

U.S. warplanes hit Iraqi positions near Mosul, the commercial center of northern Iraq. Kurdish ground forces are within 20 miles of the city.

 

Spot3 U.S. forces closing in from the north

A U.S.military official, speaking on coalition of anonymity, said several objectives had been seized on the northern and northwestern edges of Baghdad.

 

Spot4 British troops find human remains

British forces in southern Iraq found hundreds of boxes containing human remains in a warehouse near Zubayr and are investigating how they got there, military officials said Saturday.

 

Spot5 Coalition strikes Basra residence

Two coalition aircraft bombed the Basra residence of Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid. He is a member of Saddam's inner circle and commander of Iraq's southern forces.

British troops saw a group of Iraqis soldiers shelled by their own forced as they tried to surrender in a village west of Basra.

 

Baghdad Region

Spot1 U.S. forces control road in Tikrit

Special operations forces were "maintaining effective control" of the roads between Baghdad and Tikrit, hometown of Iraqi President Saddam Hussin.

 

Spot2  Marines subdue foreign fighters

Marines with bayonets struggled in the reeds to subdue a force of foreign fighters, mostly Jordanians, Egyptians and Sudanese who had been "given a rifle and told to become a martyr," said Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, commanding office of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines.

 

Spot3 U.S. troops take Republican Guard HQ

U.S Army soldiers Saturday captured the headquarters of the Republican Guard's Medina Division. Two tank companies and an infantry company of the 3rd infantry Division quickly took over the entire base, finding abandoned bunkers, foxholes and artillery pieces.

 

(Source: USA Today, updated 6:25 pm ET, April 5)