U.S.: 2,500 Republican Guard troops surrender
A fuel tank burns in a hangar at Saddam International Airport near Baghdad on Friday morning as a U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle keeps watch
About 2,500 Iraqi Republican Guard troops surrendered Friday southeast of Baghdad, according to U.S. military officers, as American and Iraqi forces fought for control of Saddam International Airport, 12 miles from the center of the Iraqi capital.
The Iraqi troops surrendered to the U.S. Marines Expeditionary Unit between Kut and Baghdad, according to U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Frank Thorp.
U.S. forces had secured about 75 percent of the airport by around 8:30 a.m. Friday (11:30 p.m. Thursday EST), a U.S. ground commander told an embedded reporter for Britain's Sky News. No U.S. casualties have been reported in the battle for the airport.
American armored divisions launched the assault on the airport as U.S.-led coalition troops advanced on the Iraqi capital.
Iraqis have tried to stop the U.S. advance by charging with dump trucks, pickup trucks and buses filled with Iraqi soldiers firing their weapons, according to reports from CNN correspondent Walter Rodgers, embedded with the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, near the airport. The Army calls the soldier-filled vehicles "suicide buses," Rodgers said.
U.S. tanks easily destroy the Iraqi vehicles, he said. At least one of the buses blew up as if it had explosives inside, Rodgers reported.
In Baghdad, the coalition bombing came in waves, sometimes with explosions rocking the capital one after another for minutes on end. The bombing began about 2 a.m. Friday (5 p.m. Thursday EST). One explosion was so powerful that it lit up the blacked-out capital, and a fire engulfed a structure.
Three hours later, the city shook from more multiple explosions, and anti-aircraft fire shot into the sky.
The coalition might begin its attempt to install a new government in Baghdad even before the war is over, perhaps as soon as next week, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.
"I think you'll see in the next week an organizing event that will start to bring that into focus," the official said. Asked where that would occur, the official said, "In Baghdad."
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested Thursday that coalition forces might not be gearing up for an urban conflict within Baghdad, but might instead isolate Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and cut off his communications.
"When you get to the point where Baghdad is basically isolated, then what is the situation you have in the country?" Myers said.
"You have a country that Baghdad no longer controls, that whatever's happening inside Baghdad is almost irrelevant compared to what's going on in the rest of the country."
Shortly before the airport assault, around 9 p.m. local time, the lights in Baghdad went out and Iraqi authorities began closing checkpoints in the city, a source in Baghdad told CNN.
It was the first time the city's electricity has gone off in the two-week-old bombardment of the city. said the city's power system was not targeted. It was unclear whether Iraqi authorities turned off the power or collateral damage from an airstrike caused the outage.
Arabic-language TV networks Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV said U.S. forces met strong opposition and heavy shelling as they approached Baghdad. Iraqi satellite television called reports that the airport had been seized "lies."
An Iraqi TV anchor read a statement purportedly from Saddam exhorting his military leaders to keep up the battle or let other commanders take over.
"You have to be faithful to the promise you made," the statement told Baath Party officials. "The enemy wants to invade your sacred land. Now it is your turn to show your true faith and loyalty."
