Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102280023
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
The core of the conflict involved hundreds of tanks from three U.S. armored units of the VII Corps - the 1st and 3rd Armored Divisions and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment - against the Hammuravi division of the Republican Guard, Pentagon officials said.
The pivotal battle was taking place some 50 miles west of the key military center of Basra, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"This is the largest tank battle since World War II," said Col. Miguel Monteverde, the Pentagon's director of defense information.
Overall in southeast Iraq, more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers were attempting to cut off and immobilize at least four Republican Guard divisions - the last elements of the vaunted Iraqi military machine.
The so-called "pincer move" had the VII Corps closing in from the southwest, while the 18th Airborne Corps pressed in from the West, said a senior Pentagon military official.
"They're blocked, they can't get out," the senior military officer said of the Republican Guard. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
In all, the official said the U.S. units were attempting to neutralize the remaining three Republican Guard infantry divisions and about one and a half armored divisions in the conflict west of Basra, the official said.
"It's a fierce tank battle," the source said. "We don't know the outcome yet."
The last major tank battle involving U.S. forces occurred during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 to January 1945, when the Germans put 1,000 tanks against a thinly held allied sector in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg. The allies and U.S. Army committed several thousand tanks and armored vehicles to the conflict.
In the Basra battle, the three U.S. divisions have committed more than 470 top-of-the-line M1A1 tanks, as well as 330 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which are armored troop transports with a top-mounted gun. An Iraqi armored division such as the Hammuravi has between 250 and 300 tanks, many of them the tough Soviet-made T-72s, the Pentagon said.
Word of the pivotal tank battle came as the Pentagon said it had rendered ineffective 26 Iraqi divisions. But now that the U.S. and allied military forces have driven deep into the heart of Iraq, officials feared a possible attack by two Iraqi divisions stationed outside Baghdad.
Another senior Pentagon official said the entire Iraqi army is trapped by allied forces. No substantial forces have escaped, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"There are some very genuine armor battles going on with the remaining Iraqi divisions," said the official.
The Pentagon source who described the Basra tank battle said U.S. armored units, backed by Apache attack helicopters and mobile howitzer guns, were "driving east" toward the southeastern Iraqi city.
The Republican Guard units, trapped between the Euphrates River delta to the north and the U.S. attacking forces from the west and southwest, were "offering determined resistance," the source said.
Some Iraqi forces were mounting a counter attack, the source said, while others were attempting a fighting retreat to Basra, the officer said.
"It's a pincer movement," the source said, describing the VII Corps and 24th Infantry moves designed to cut off the remaining Guard units from any possible retreat to Baghdad.
The Iraqis, the source said, "are dogged. They are fighting to the best of their ability." The source predicted, however, "they will be unsuccessful" in the face of U.S. air support.
The units were fighting under heavily overcast conditions, which can make it difficult to conduct close-air support operations for ground troops. Clearing was expected shortly.
In an attempt to flee across the Euphrates River near Basra, the Iraqis have thrown up "a handful" of pontoon bridges, the official said.
Such a maneuver would be doomed to failure, he added, because the Guard's heavy tanks wouldn't be able to survive a river crossing under the air attacks mounted by tank-killing choppers. Bombing raids earlier had destroyed all bridges on the river.
"We have reports of individual soldiers fleeing, crossing without military equipment," the official said.
To the west of this latest encounter, the rear flank of the U.S. force was bolstered by the capture of a key air base, Tallil, located near the Euphrates River city of Nasiriya, the official said.
While taking the airfield, the 24th destroyed three Soviet-made MiG-29 top-of the line fighter jets, four helicopters and a cargo plane, the sources said.
With only four major divisions remaining, at least half of the vaunted Republican Guard's eight divisions were either defeated or rendered ineffective.
In overnight fighting with other Guard units to the south of the Basra tank battle, U.S. VII Corps units took 10,000 POWs and destroyed more than 1,200 pieces of armored equipment such as tanks, trucks and artillery, the source said.
The VII Corps defeated one mechanized Guard division inside Iraq near the western Kuwait border, and was continuing to encounter "light to heavy" clashes with the remaining units of a second Guard division, the source said.
"They are running into pieces of units," the officer said.
The source said he had no final results of a VII Corps Apache chopper attack against a regular Iraqi Army division that took place inside Kuwait during the night on Tuesday.
But so far, the official said, results from the incident appeared good, given that no chopper losses had been reported from the encounter.
Offering an update for a third clash, the official said 57 of the Iraqi's top tanks, the Soviet-made T-72s, had been destroyed in overnight fighting along the Euphrates River. The tanks had attempted to flee towards Baghdad in a convoy that was interdicted by elements of the 24th Infantry, the source said.
by CNB