JEROME DELAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

An Iraqi child who reportedly suffered burnsduring the overnight raid over Baghdad cries.

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THE SOUTH’S OLDEST NEWSPAPER — ESTABLISHED 1785$1.25 ● Final Edition Sunday, March 23, 2003

03-23 Pg 1A

CONFLICT WITH IRAQ

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‘Chronicle’ writer offers Oscar picksSo who’s it gonna be?Will Nicole Kidman’s performance as author

Virginia Wolfe beat out Salma Hayek’s role asartist Frida Kahlo by a nose? Do The Gangs ofNew York have the muscle to win over ThePianist? Entertainment Writer Steven Uhlespredicts this year’s Academy Award winners.

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INSIDE TODAY

SPECIAL

An Iraqi soldier (center) surrenders himself at An Nasiriyah, northwest of Basra in southern Iraq. Thousands of bedraggled Iraqi soldiers have surrendered.

IN IRAQACROSS THE NATION

● MORE WAR COVERAGE, PAGES 13-21A ●

● In the southern city of Basra, alliedforces faced artillery and machine-gunfire. Rather than risk a bloody urbanbattlefield in a city of 2 million, the alliestook what they needed – an airport anda bridge – and moved on, leavingBritish forces behind.

● Senior Bush administration officials saidSaturday there was no intelligence thatwould conclusively determine whetherSaddam Hussein or his sons, Qusaiand Odai, were alive, dead or wounded.One other high-level Iraqi leader wasknown to be alive: Saddam’s cousin AliHassan al-Majid al-Tikriti, known to hisenemies as ‘‘Chemical Ali’’ for leading adeadly 1988 campaign in northern Iraqthat included chemical weapons attacksagainst rebellious Kurds.

● A senior Kurdish official said Saturdaythat U.S. troops are scheduled to beginarriving in force in northern Iraq within afew days to open a new front.

By Geoffrey Mohan and Tyler MarshallLos Angeles Times

WITH U.S. FORCES IN SOUTH-ERN IRAQ — Backed by a relent-less barrage of air power, U.S. andBritish troops made it halfway toBaghdad, but they were slowed Sat-urday by patches of Iraqi resistanceand braced for heavier fighting.

The invading troops fought for anairport in the city of Nasiriyah andsaid they had captured an airportand bridge on the outskirts of Basra,Iraq’s second-largest city. Iraqitroops fought fiercely in both places,and U.S. commanders apparentlydecided against a street fight forBasra, pushing on instead towardthe capital.

Even as U.S. and British forcesadvanced, the largest U.S. casual-ties came in the heavily defendedKuwait camp of the 101st AirborneDivision early today.

Hand grenades and small-armsfire wounded at least 13 U.S. sol-diers in what was initially suspectedas an attack by outsiders. The Asso-ciated Press reported that one sol-dier was killed and that the suspect,who was found hiding in a bunker, isassigned to the 101st Airborne. Themotive in the attack ‘‘most likelywas resentment,’’ said Max Blumen-feld, a U.S. Army spokesman. Hedid not elaborate.

There were no other reports ofdeaths among U.S. or British forcesSaturday. But the war claimed thelife of at least one journalist, anAustralian cameraman working forABC. Paul Moran, 39, was amongfive people killed in northern Iraqwhen an apparent suicide bomberblew himself up near a camp of theAnsar al-Islam group, which hasbeen linked to al-Qaida.

Baghdad saw its third consecu-tive night of bombing, along withsome daylight aerial attacks thatsuggested the U.S. command wasgrowing more confident of its abilityto strike unimpeded.

Still, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrys-tal, a member of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, said the United States re-mains ‘‘respectful’’ of Iraq’s defen-sive capabilities. And he warnedthat the U.S. and British forcesmight yet encounter Iraq’s toughestdivisions, those of President Sad-dam Hussein’s Republican Guard.

‘‘Bad things could still happen,’’said a Pentagon spokeswoman, Vic-toria Clarke.

In southern Iraq, three journal-ists with Britain’s ITN televisionnetwork were reported missing af-ter coming under fire. Iraqi govern-ment officials said three people had

Please see IRAQ on PAGE 11A

Grenade attack on 101st kills one; U.S. soldier suspected

TONY GUTIERREZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Demonstrators wave flags and holdsigns showing support for PresidentBush and U.S. troops during a rally inDallas. Nearly 3,000 people attended theevent, which was one of several heldacross the country Saturday.

For more about the conflict with Iraq, goto: www.augustachronicle.com/iraq.

The AugustaChronicle StaffWriter JohnnyEdwards detailsthe movement ofthe Augusta-based 319thTransportationCompany acrossIraq’s border to anew camp.

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