8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 2; 2003 WAR Iraqiforces continue to lose strength as US. moves akead WASHINGTON (AP) - Two Iraqi Republican Guard units are at less than half their original strength after days of air and ground attacks by coalition forces, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday. "We continue to work on them," said Air Force Gen. Richard Myers. He said Iraqi commanders have moved some troops around as reinforcements for the divisions that are the main force defending Baghdad. "But some of them have been degraded to pret- ty low percentages of combat capability - below 50 percent in at least two cases," Myers said. Appearing with Myers at a Pentagon brief- ing, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied that the United States is negotiating an end to war with Iraq. "The only thing the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender," he said. Myers said serious combat is already under way against Iraqi forces, and there will be "bigger pushes that will be under way as soon as we're ready." But he gave no indication of the timing of an assault on Baghdad. Rumsfeld said U.S. and British forces are posi- tioned around the Iraqi capital from the north, south and west. "The circle is closing," he said. The defense secretary said Republican Guard units "have been taking a pounding" for several days. "They're being attacked from the air, they're pressured from the ground, and in good time they won't be there,"Rumsfeld said. He said that Saddam Hussein's government had been planting rumors that U.S. officials were talk- ing to Iraqi leaders, with the goal of convincing Iraqi citizens that "the coalition does not intend to finish the job." Speaking directly to the Iraqi public, Rumsfeld denied such rumors and accused Saddam's gov- ernment of lying. "There are no negotiations taking place," Rumsfeld said. "There is no outcome to this war that will leave Saddam Hussein and his regime in power." Myers launched a spirited defense of the U.S. military strategy being used in Iraq, which has been accused of underestimating the extent of Iraqi resistance and sending in too few ground troops. Myers said military critics of the plan are "not being responsible members of the team that put this all together.... It is not helpful to have those comments." "This subject is not useful," Myers continued. "It's not good for our troops, and it's not accurate." He said that Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the forces in Iraq, has received everything he sought in terms of resources and manpower.. U.S. military officials have said that American forces have enough bombs and missiles for the Iraq war, despite an intensifying air campaign. U.S.-led forces launched missiles early yesterday toward Baghdad and the holy Shiite Muslim city of Karbala to the southwest. Among the targets, U.S. officials said, was a complex that serves as the office of the Iraqi National Olympic Commit- tee, where Iraqi dissidents say Saddam's son Odai runs a torture center. U.S. warplanes used more than 3,000 preci- sion-guided bombs on Iraqi targets over the weekend, compared to about 5,000 in the pre- vious week, said Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrys- tal of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said coalition forces had fired more than 700 Tom- ahawk cruise missiles. Air Force Secretary James Roche said yes- terday there was no reason for concern about running low on the precision-guided bomb he called the "weapon of choice" in this war, the satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition launched by Air Force and Navy planes. "We don't see a problem there," Roche said in an interview with a group of reporters. .. . - Pfc. Kurt Singer, from Richardton, N.D., who is a driver with 2-70 Armor, surveys a body of an Iraqi soldier near a bombed out vehicle on a highway just north of the town of Al Kifl, Iraq. U.S. planes withdraw from base nTurkey ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -The Unit- ed States is withdrawing warplanes from a Turkish air base that have been used for patrols over northern Iraq and send- ing them to the Persian Gulf for the war, US. officials said yesterday, a sign of the growing distance between Washington and Ankara. Secretary of State Colin-Powell is to meet with Turkish officials today in an effort to repair the fractured relation- ship, which has left Washington alien- ated from NATO's only Muslim member at a time when the United States is desperate for support in the Muslim world. Some U.S. officials are questioning the usefulness of Turkey as an ally and point to the country's refusal to allow in U.S. ground troops to open a northern front against Iraq, a strategy that both sides agreed would lead to a shorter, less bloody war. Washington began pulling some 50 warplanes out of Incirlik air base in southern Turkey after it became clear that Turkey would not allow them to be used in an Iraq war. The planes had patrolled northern Iraq since after the 1991 Gulf War. "The U.S.-Turkish strategic partner- ship ... has been severely damaged and it needs repair," said Sami Kohen, a columnist for the Milliyet newspaper. The withdrawal of the warplanes - F-15s, F-16s, EA-6Bs and AWACs radar aircraft - had been widely expected after Turkey said the base could not be used in a war. The withdrawals began last week and are expected to continue until later this week, Maj. Bob Thompson, a spokesman at Incirlik, said yesterday He would not be more specific for security reasons. Thompson said some of the aircraft would be moved to the Persian Gulf, while others would be sent to their home bases. The 1,400 US. personnel who worked on the Iraq patrols will be withdrawn from the base. A similar number will remain; they are part of a permanent deployment that dates back to the Cold War whose work now includes logistics for US. soldiers in Afghanistan. Turkey is also angry at the United States. Ankara officials speak bitterly about how Washington took them for granted and did not realize how sensitive basing 62,000 U.S. ground troops in Turkey would have been to a Turkish public overwhelmingly against war. The United States can switch to other muni- tions if it runs low on the $600,000 Toma- hawks, said Marine Col. Tom Bright of U.S. Central Command. The Pentagon, meanwhile, announced that the number of American troops killed in the war so far has risen to 46, up three from Monday. Of the total, 38 are categorized as hostile deaths and eight as non-hostile. The non-hostile category includes troops who died in accidents, for example. Sixteen service members are listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown" - a status similar to missing in action - and seven are prisoners of war. The Republican Guard units defending Bagh- dad include the Medina, Hammurabi and Bagh- dad divisions south of the capital and units of the Nebuchadnezzar division, which is normally sta- tioned far north of Baghdad, which have moved south as reinforcements. Soldiers' letters from Ira rin <'d ,t :j ove ones reassurance, conifort 20 ==mE W The Associated Press The letters arrived regularly from Marine Cpl. Randy Rosacker. Some were homemade postcards, fashioned from empty containers of prepackaged food. Others were longer, private thoughts from a son in Kuwait to a family awaiting his return. They were his last words. The 21- year-old from San Diego was killed March 23 in an " amb6h near Nasiriyah, Iraq. For some, the last letters of those killed in the War have becdme''a source of comfort, full of words of love, grati- tude and reflection. For others, they are mementos to be shared years from now when small children have grown or when somebody asks about a son or daughter lost in battle. "They're a gift, I guess," said Rosacker's father, Navy Command Master Chief Rod Rosacker of Bre- merton, Wash. "Something to remember him by, something to share." Most letters are filled with descriptions of camp life and hor- rendous sandstorms. Some contain wishes for CDs and candy. All offer declarations of love, wishes for quick reunions and an understand- iig of the danger ahead. Rosa Gonzalez said the letters from her son, Marine Cpl. Jorge Gonzalez, gave her a sense of peace and that nothing was left unsaid. "He didn't hold back anything. Everything he felt, he would tell me," she said. A letter from Gonzalez, 20, arrived at his parents' Rialto, Calif., home two days after his March 23 death. Written in Spanish while he was still in a desert camp, the letter contained good news - and a wish. He had just spoken to his wife by phone and learned about the birth of their son. "If you can wait a little longer, we'll see each other in summer. God willing," he wrote. Looking at the letter with her son's neat handwriting, his mother said, "I was waiting for you, my love." A. AP PHOTO Letters from Cip. Randall Rosacker including a postcard written on a Meal's Ready to Eat carton lies on a sofa at his father's Silverdale, Wash., home. Businesses, citizens of Baghdad struggle to continue amid airstrikes BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Huge explosions shattered the silence across Baghdad early today, with blasts rocking the center of the city and a plume of white smoke rising from the southern end of the Old Palace grounds in the capital. More explosions hit Baghdad in the 30 minutes after the first blast at 3 a.m. The Old Palace, the ceremonial seat of government on the west bank of the Tigris, is also home to a camp for Saddam Hussein's vaunted Republi- can Guard. The palace, which was rarely used openly by Saddam, remained a frequent target of the nightly aerial attacks on the city of 5 million people. Explosions and the wail of air raid sirens "They are rac have become a staple of. Baghdad's nights since are indiciii the campaign began gj]]ing people with a missile attack on March 20. a iCivlian pla( But by day, despite - Mohammec two weeks of attacks Iraqi Info and damage to dozens of local sites and land- marks, the Iraqi capital maintains the appearance of a functioning city. The targets have varied greatly, from presi- dential palaces to residential areas and at least five telephone exchanges. But the city's power supply remains intact and street lights come on at night. The phone exchanges have provided the city's residents with the most graphic scenes of destruction. Strewn among the wreckage are thousands of wires, as well as furniture, computers, metal cabinets, chairs and the sponge used to fill in false walls and ceil- ings. The exchanges were struck in remarkably accurate hits, taking out the target and large- ly leaving everything around it intact. Some homes lost windows or more, but so far there apparently aimed at Republican Guard units defending Baghdad. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said 56 people were killed and 268 wounded overnight yesterday, including 24 dead in Baghdad. He said nine children, including an infant, were killed yes- terday morning in the town of Hillah, about 50 miles south of the capital. "They are racist. So they are indiscrimi- nately killing people," al-Sahhaf said. "Hillah is my hometown. It is a civilian place." Some of the attacks, mostly by Tomahawk cruise missiles, left government buildings smoldering for a day or two. Others, like one next to the Planning Ministry, were gutted. Another notable sight in st So they the capital is the Al-Salam presidential palace, a Bagh- dad landmark because it flM ..S has four busts of Saddam ,, on each corner of the main palace building, a square- Saeed al-Sahhaf, shaped structure with a nation Minister dome sitting atop. The busts are visible from the road, together with a gaping hole in each side of the dE )rr American POW found, army and hometown rejoice WASHINGTON (AP) - American troops yesterday res- cued Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who had been held as a prison- er of war in Iraq since she and other members of her unit were ambushed March 23, the Defense Department announced. Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., had been missing with 11 other U.S. soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company. The unit was ambushed near Nasiriyah after making a wrong turn during early fighting-in the invasion of Iraq. Five other members of her unit were later shown on Iraqi television answering questions from their Iraqi captors. U.S. troops rescued Lynch near where her unit was ambushed, said Jean Offutt, a spokeswoman for Fort Bliss, Texas. The 507th Maintenance is based at Fort Bliss. Lynch had been listed as missing in action but was identi- fied by the Pentagon Tuesday as a POW She was not among the seven U.S. soldiers - including the five from the 507th shown on television - formally listed as prisoners of war. Offutt said she did not know whether Lynch had been wounded or when she might return to the United States. The rescued soldier's hometown erupted in celebration at the news. "They said it was going to be the biggest party this road had ever seen," Lynch's cousin Sherri McFee said as fire and police sirens blared in the background. "Everybody was really worried ... but we all remained hopeful and knew she would be home," McFee said. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at Central Command headquar- ters in Qatar announced that a U.S. POW had been rescued but refused to provide any further details. In a brief statement, Brooks said: "Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prison- er of war held captive in Iraq. The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area." Central Command officials in Qatar, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lynch was rescued from a hospital in Iraq. Fifteen other Americans are formally listed as missing. The other POWs include two Army Apache helicopter pilots cap- tured March 24 after their helicopter went down. The 507th Maintenance was attacked during some of the first fighting in Nasiriyah, a Euphrates River-crossing city where sporadic battles have raged since U.S. troops first reached it. Troops and military officials have said much of the fighting there has involved members of the Fedayeen Saddam and other Iraqi paramilitaries who have dressed as civilians and ambushed Americans. Lynch, an aspiring teacher, joined the Army to get an edu- cation and take advantage of a rare opportunity in a farming building. Many of the buildings hit in the air bomb- ing are still standing. Some may need repairs to be usable again, others not. Yesterday, the old headquarters of the Iraqi air force, which has in recent years been used as an officers' club, was gone. Nothing remained except a heap of gray rubble and a, few pillars. In addition, U.S. military officials said allied aircraft bombed a complex that serves as the office of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee, where Saddam's son Odai is said to run a torture center. Human rights activists have accused him of jailing and brutalizing athletes who failed to please him. The lower four floors of the nine-story Olympic building were severely damaged. AP PHOTO Navy Corpsman Gentry Lloyd of Montgomery, Ala., searches an Iraqi woman as marines question civilian detainees after an engagement yesterday afternoon. Navy scours harbor 0 ; for underw ater mines ABOARD THE USS PONCE (AP) - Ships, divers, helicopters and dol- phins are all here looking for the same thing - mines that are clogging the waters of southern Iraq and blocking aid shipments. The first boatload of supplies arrived last week at the strategic southern port of Umm Qasr, but a naval officer acknowledged Monday that navigat- ing the surrounding waterways still poses dangers to regular aid convoys. "There's still a lot of work to do," said Royal Navy Cmdr. Brian Mair, one of the officers heading up the U.S.-led coalition's mine-clearing efforts. "If you don't want mistakes and accidents to happen, you have to be slow and methodical."