Army Enters Holy City
Troops Press to Within 1/2 Mile of Revered Tomb
In Najaf
By Rick Atkinson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 2, 2003; Page A01
NAJAF, Iraq, April 1 -- U.S. Army troops seized the southern edge of this key Euphrates River city today as Iraqi militia fighters appeared to retreat in the face of overwhelming firepower.
Hundreds of curious civilians, many of them smiling and waving, lined the narrow, dusty streets while soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division pressed to within half a mile of the gilded dome of the tomb of Ali, a site venerated by Shiite Muslims as the burial site of the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne, drove in an armed convoy up a rocky escarpment into Najaf, urged on by clapping Iraqis who gestured impatiently for the Americans to press deeper into the city center. An Army loudspeaker truck broadcast messages in Arabic, urging residents not to interfere with the military operation and blaming militia fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein for the intense fighting of the past week.
American flags flapped from the antennas on two Special Forces pickup trucks, as infantrymen shambled north block by block, cautiously securing intersections and peering through doorways. Young Iraqi men in traditional long robes, called kaftans, stood smoking or chatting, while boys wheeled about on bicycles or two-wheel carts drawn by donkeys.
Four women in black peered over the wall of a second-story terrace. A bearded man clutching his prayer beads peevishly scattered a group of youths who had pressed too close to an Army Humvee armed with a .50-caliber machine gun.
By the end of the day, Petraeus declared Najaf "very much contained." He noted that his troops -- who continue to be wary of snipers and suicide bombers -- have yet to occupy most neighborhoods in this city of about 500,000 people 90 miles south of Baghdad, but added, "We seem to have broken the back of the resistance" in the city.
An officer with V Corps, which is directing the Army's drive toward Baghdad, said that when Najaf is taken, "that's huge, that's one big domino. . . . The enemy fought real hard to retain it, and they lost."
Najaf is considered militarily important because it straddles the Army's supply routes leading north to Karbala and the southern approaches to Baghdad. Military planners have been baffled by the indifferent reception given the U.S. invasion by Iraq's often-oppressed Shiite majority, and today's welcome, if hardly tumultuous, was considered heartening.
Troops Press to Within 1/2 Mile of Revered Tomb
In Najaf
By Rick Atkinson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 2, 2003; Page A01
NAJAF, Iraq, April 1 -- U.S. Army troops seized the southern edge of this key Euphrates River city today as Iraqi militia fighters appeared to retreat in the face of overwhelming firepower.
Hundreds of curious civilians, many of them smiling and waving, lined the narrow, dusty streets while soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division pressed to within half a mile of the gilded dome of the tomb of Ali, a site venerated by Shiite Muslims as the burial site of the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne, drove in an armed convoy up a rocky escarpment into Najaf, urged on by clapping Iraqis who gestured impatiently for the Americans to press deeper into the city center. An Army loudspeaker truck broadcast messages in Arabic, urging residents not to interfere with the military operation and blaming militia fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein for the intense fighting of the past week.
American flags flapped from the antennas on two Special Forces pickup trucks, as infantrymen shambled north block by block, cautiously securing intersections and peering through doorways. Young Iraqi men in traditional long robes, called kaftans, stood smoking or chatting, while boys wheeled about on bicycles or two-wheel carts drawn by donkeys.
Four women in black peered over the wall of a second-story terrace. A bearded man clutching his prayer beads peevishly scattered a group of youths who had pressed too close to an Army Humvee armed with a .50-caliber machine gun.
By the end of the day, Petraeus declared Najaf "very much contained." He noted that his troops -- who continue to be wary of snipers and suicide bombers -- have yet to occupy most neighborhoods in this city of about 500,000 people 90 miles south of Baghdad, but added, "We seem to have broken the back of the resistance" in the city.
An officer with V Corps, which is directing the Army's drive toward Baghdad, said that when Najaf is taken, "that's huge, that's one big domino. . . . The enemy fought real hard to retain it, and they lost."
Najaf is considered militarily important because it straddles the Army's supply routes leading north to Karbala and the southern approaches to Baghdad. Military planners have been baffled by the indifferent reception given the U.S. invasion by Iraq's often-oppressed Shiite majority, and today's welcome, if hardly tumultuous, was considered heartening.
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