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17:25 2003-04-02

Battles on the outskirts of Baghdad were probably April 1st joke

Private Jessica Lynch made headlines of news reports for today. Everything turned out to be so very successful: American special troops conducted an operation in an-Nasiriya and seized a hospital, where Jessica was found. However, there were also either nine or eleven dead American soldiers found there too. Jessica Lynch was saved, CNN will make her a national hero.

It has already been rumored that Iraqi servicemen tortured her. Yet, it is not really clear, why she was put in a hospital, but it does not really matter. Who is going to pay attention to little details of no importance, taking into consideration the fact that allied troops advance closer to Baghdad further on?

As the American military command said, the town of Kerbala, which is located 110 kilometers south of Baghdad, was seized and blocked very easily: �gRight now things are going pretty well. We've secured the positions we wanted to around Kerbala," Colonel John Peabody said. To all appearances, allied troops�f tactics has not experienced any changes: they keep on blocking towns on their way to Baghdad. However, it just so happens that American and British servicemen move away from the Iraqi capital instead of approaching it. It was said several days ago that coalition troops were 80 kilometers off Baghdad. Yesterday it was reported that coalition forces battled on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital. It seems strange that the news of blocked town of Kerbela (100 kilometers of Baghdad) was reported a message of outstanding success. It is not excluded that battles on the outskirts of Baghdad were simply an April 1st joke.

As a matter of fact, the situation on the front is still not clear. To all appearances, allied troops have not managed to gain the total control over any Iraqi town. It was originally believed that the seized port of Umm Qasra would be used for delivering humanitarian cargoes. Nothing new has been reported about it.

There is an impression that it is only one division of the Republican Guard �Medina- that shows resistance to allied troops. Either Americans are afraid of the division, or there are no other divisions in the Iraqi army. Careful observation of news reports gives an impression that the division is actually destroyed. It was reported today that the division lost 50% of its tanks. If it continues like that in the future, Americans will have to wage war with peasants.

On the photo: Jessica Lynch (photo taken in September of 2000)

Vasily Bubnov
PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov