TROOP MOVEMENTS: A major battle between elite Iraqi and US troops was expected late yesterday with a large column of Iraqi forces reportedly heading south to meet American soldiers advancing on Baghdad.
he movement was reported after US troops said they killed about 1,000 Iraqis in three days of fighting around the town of Najaf, 150 kilometres south of the capital.
CNN quoted US officers as saying that a column of up to 1,000 Iraqi military vehicles was rumbling south from the town of Karbala, 70 kilometres north of Najaf.
Maj John Altman, intelligence officer of the Third Infantry Division's First Brigade, earlier said the Iraqis were trying to reinforce Najaf with thousands of elite Republican Guard troops from Karbala.
The Iraqis were said to be on the move in the middle of a lingering sandstorm that has cut visibility drastically and hampered the ability of US forces to use their anti-tank Apache helicopters.
US military officials driving to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein said the Iraqis appeared bent on retaking a key bridge over the Euphrates.
They said airstrikes were called in to slow the advancing column.
The Third Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division had been poised for a crucial battle in Karbala with the Republican Guard's armoured Medina Division guarding the western approaches to Baghdad.
But an Iraqi military spokesman said on state television that the Republican Guard had gone into action yesterday for the first time in the war, inflicting heavy losses on coalition troops in the mid-Euphrates region including Najaf.
US army commanders earlier said their troops had killed 1,000 Iraqis around Najaf, including 200 at a suspected chemical weapons plant in the town, 250 in two clashes on the east bank of the Euphrates and 100 on a bridge. "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has sent about 1,000 reinforcements from his Baath Party, the Fedayeen, and his Al-Quds militia to Najaf, As Sanawa and Nasariyah," said Maj Gen Buford Blount, commander of the Third Infantry Division.
US commanders said their troops had encircled Najaf since Tuesday night, using Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles against Iraqi militia armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades.
A Pentagon official said a US tank was disabled in the fighting and two other vehicles of the US Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment were damaged.
Maj Gen Blount said: "They are fighting very tenaciously and constantly attacking US forces."
But the encirclement of Najaf and heavy sandstorms in the region had between them had put back the advance north by around 48 hours, Maj Gen Blount said.
"It has cost us a couple of days on our timeline," he said.
Elsewhere, US Marines slogged on towards the capital.
Both sides got ready for what could be a large tank battle on the western approaches to Baghdad.
The US army's Third Infantry Division and 101st Airborne Division were set to engage an elite armoured division of Iraq's Republican Guard, while at least two formations of US Marines approached Baghdad from the south-east.
But a sand blizzard kept the 101st Airborne Division's fleet of more than 270 attack helicopters out of the battle for Baghdad for the second day, officers said.
"We've got everything we need to carry out the mission, but the weather is absolutely horrid," said Col Greg Gass, commander of the 101 Aviation Brigade as gusts of up to 50 knots whipped his desert encampment. "In this weather you can't fly, you can't even drive," he said.