IRNA -- A contingent of US Army and Marines Division,backed by tanks, has rolled into Baghdad, the TV broadcaster Fox News said Saturday. The television showed what it said were columns of tanks, belonging to the 3rd Infantry Division, entering downtown Baghdad. The footage showed the tanks pushing on a highway and passing in one point past a mural of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. CNN confirmed the reports as it said US troops had penetrated the 'heart of Baghdad'. How 'bout that? IRNA watches Fox, and our guys went downtown...
It also reported occasional stiff resistance, put up by Iraqi forces, who used rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and fired anti-aircraft weapons. Fox News also reported of five strong explosions, heard at the center of Baghdad. It also showed an Iraqi TV footage of what it said was Saddam talking to cheering citizens on the Baghdad streets. The Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera said earlier clashes were underway among the US-coalition and Iraqi forces on the outskirts of the Saddam International Airport in Baghdad. It also quoted a US military spokesman as saying that the American forces had seized the airport which renamed it as 'Baghdad International Airport'.
FOLLOWUP: From Rooters...
U.S. troops staged a foray into Baghdad for the first time on Saturday, taking the 17-day-old war to topple Saddam Hussein right into his battered capital. The Iraqi president, in a message read on television by a minister, urged his armed forces and people to step up attacks on the U.S. and British invasion forces. "The criminals will be humiliated," the message said. "To hurt the enemy more, raise the level of your attacks."
"Y'all get out there and get killed! Do it for me, 'cuz I'm special!"
Iraq denied any U.S. forces were in Baghdad and said its troops had driven the Americans from the international airport — a claim that a U.S. military spokesman said was groundless. U.S. military sources said at least 20 Abrams tanks and 10 Bradley fighting vehicles had rumbled up a southern highway through Baghdad's Dawra suburb before swinging west and linking up with troops at the airport southwest of the city center.
Just cruisin' the streets. Wonder if they got next to any chicks?
A Reuters correspondent who drove freely around the sprawling city of five million later in the day saw no sign of U.S. forces in areas he visited.
Oh. Well. In that case, they must not have been there. Never mind.