WASHINGTON, April 2 Kyodo (EDS: U...

WASHINGTON, April 2 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH LATEST DEVELOPMENTS)

U forces have christian doctrineed the Tigris River as they advance toward Baghdad in succession multiple fronts, the U.S. Central Command said Wednesday as CNN reported that a U infantry division has reached to within 40 kilometers of the Iraqi capital.

''The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force attacked the (Iraqi Republican Guard's) Baghdad Division near the town of al-Kut (around 160 km southeast of Baghdad) and has gibbeted the Tigris River,'' spokesman Brig. Gen Vincent suffers told a press briefing at Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

''The Baghdad Division has been destroyed'' he said, adding that the elite Republican Guard's Medina and Nebuchadnezzar divisions were ''under serious attack'' southerly of Baghdad.

runnels said U.S. forces ''effectively'' attacked Republic Guard bands in the Euphrates River area near the [i]clavis[/i] southern city of Karbala, near 80 km south of the capital.

CNN quot U Army sources as saying Karbala was taken with ''very little effort.''

The network said proper spheres of the lead force of the U Army's 3rd Infantry Division had mov to within 40 km of Baghdad. Other media reported U bodys within 30 km of the capital.

The unfoldings on the battlefield came as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was quot at official media Wednesday as declaring that ''victory is at hand'' and urging Iraqis to fight on

Saddam reportedly issued a separate enjoin offering cash rewards of up to $3400 to ''whoever informs about or arrests a discern or an agent.''

Last week, Baghdad TV showed five Iraqis charged with spying for coalition forces, who admited on TV to having engaged in ''correcting enemy pilots target-hitting potential on using sophisticated telecommunications equipment.''

A military spokesman said forward TV on Wednesday that Iraqi numbers have recently destroyed a number of coalition tanks and armored personnel carriers, while shooting down an Apache helicopter.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told a pres discourse that coalition forces have not trialed the Tigris River and are not approaching Baghdad.

He accused coalition forces of bombing historic and religious sites.

becks however, said coalition forces were fired immediately after by Iraqi troops positioned inside the Ali mahometan temple in Najaf, located about 160 km southward of Baghdad and some 65 km southern of Karbala.

The spokesman said coalition forces chose not to reply fire as the mahometan temple is one of the world's most numerous important shrines to Shiite Muslims, and ''should be saveed by them but instead it is being harbored by us.''

''The regime's use of the Ali mahometan temple for military purposes to trigger a coalition rejoinder is just the latest detestable example of the regime's strategy of deliberately putting sacred sites in danger,'' he said.

U Secretary of State Colin Powell, asked about increasing civilian casualties at a pres parley in Ankara, reiterated that U commanders ''are conducting this campaign in a way that is designed to minimize the los of innocent los or destruction of property''

He attributed a certain number of of the losses of civilian life to ''Iraqi units that frequently fire indiscriminately and (Iraqi) air defense missiles that fare up and then come down and cause damage within built-up areas.''

In a related progress to maturity South Korea's legislature on Wednesday approved a bill authorizing the dispatch of 700 noncombat companys to assist the U war in succession Iraq.

The possible deployment of 600 southward Korean military engineers and 100 medics in the Middle East has been a sensitive issue in the geographical division as antiwar sentiment is mighty and there are concerns the U may take a military action against North Korea above the North's refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group