(Source: USA Today, updated 11:51 pm ET, April
9)
Downtown
Baghdad
Spot 1: Another Saddam Palace seized
Marines seized Saddam's Azumiyah Palace, raided the headquarters
of the general security directorate and swarmed into a barracks of the Special
Republican Guard.
Spot 2: Shiite suburb celebrates
In Saddam City, a poor Shiite suburb, young men tore up posters
of Saddam, and women tossed flowers at U.S. Marines. There was looting, and
Iraqi artillery occasionally fired into neighborhoods.
Spot 3: Marines mop up resistance
U.S. Marines pushed forward, securing routes inside the city and
purshing roving bands of three of four Iraqis armed with rocket-propelled
grenaders and automatic weapons.
Spot 4: Troops occupy center of Baghdad
Coalition tanks entered Firdos Square in Wednesday, encicling a
large status of Saddam Hussin. A crowd of Iraqi citizens gathered to topple the
statue.
Spot 5: U.S. Army invades from north
For the first time, U.S. Army units moved into central Baghdad
from the north.
Spot 6: Saddam's fate unknown
Saddam Hussein's supporters retained control of the Baghdad
neighborhood targeted by four 2,000-pound bombs in a U.S.
strike aimed at killing the Iraqi president. Residents said that 14 people,
including seven children, were killed and scores wounded in homes and shops near
the site.
Spot 7: General visits Palace
Maj. Gen. Burford Blount II, commander of the 3rd Infantry
Division, visited a command post set up at the New Presidential
Palace.Col. David Perkins told Blount his forces can go
anywhere in the city and meet only sporadic sniping.
Spot 8: Firefight at university
U.S. Marines came under attack Wednesday at Baghdad University
and stormed onto the campus to return fire. The firefight was in stark contrast
to a long strech of road.
Iraq
Spot 1: Coalition strikes Mosul
Central Command said special operations forces and airstrikes
were "actively engaging" Iraqi forces in the city.
Kurdish fighters allied with coalition forces captured an
air-defense base on a hilltop 10 miles northeast of Mosul.
Spot 2: Kurds seize air defense site
U.S. troops and Kurdish fighters seized a strategic mountaintop
in northern Iraq, eliminating a crucial air defense installation near the city
of Mosul. A member of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party said the seizure
means no Iraqi defenses remain between Kurdish-U.S. forces and Iraq's
third-largest city.
Spot 3: Kurds celebrate regime's fall
People in the Kurdish city of Irbil ran into the streets to celebrate
regime's fall.
Spot 4: Kurds eye Kirkuk
Kurdish forces have tightened their ring around the key oil
center of Kirkuk, and were within sight of the city following heavy coalition
airstrikes on front-line Iraqi posotions.
Turkish leaders object to any Kurdish move on Kirkuk, Iraq's No. 2 oil
region. Iraq Kurds are helping coalition forces advance toward Kirkuk and
Mosul.
Spot 5: Residents celebrate coalition
arrival
People celebrated the arrival of coalition forces.
Spot 6: Focus turns to Tikrit
U.S. Central Command said coalition airstrikes were targeting
the Republican Guard's Adnan division in Tikrit before U.S. ground forces move
in.
Coalition rescue teams were searching for the crew of a F-15E fighter jet
that went down on a mission near the city.
Spot 7: Iraqi die-hards still present
Marines, who bypassed this city on their way to Baghdad, said there are 1,500
to 2,000 Iraqi die-hards holed up here. They are remnants from the battered
Republican Guard, Baath Party militia and volunteers from other Arab or Islamic
countries.
Spot 8: Suspected torture chamber found
U.S. Marines found what they suspect was a forture chamber at an office of
Saddam's Baath Party or of the Iraqi intelligence service. They found
photographs of badies of people who apparently had been burned alive, and a
device to deliver electric shocks.
Spot 9: Looters harm relief efforts
With the presence of British forces, looters have been plundering government
buildings, universities and hospitals in Basra. A Red Cross representative said
the looting could delay relief efforts in the city of 1.3 million.
Spot 10: More U.S. troops prepare to enter
Iraq
The Army's 4th Infantry Division, working round the clock hauling its tanks,
howitzers and other vehicles into a camp in Kuwait's northern desert, is
expected to enter Iraq within a week.
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