WASHINGTON, March 26 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, March 26 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING PENTAGON PRES BRIEFING)

U President George W Bush upon Wednesday assured the American public that the U military campaign in Iraq is going well yet the war is far from through the whole extent of and hardships and danger may lie ahead.

''Our military is making profitable progress in Iraq, yet this war is far from over'' Bush said in a language at the MacDill Air Force Base in Florida where the U Central Command headquarters is based.

''As they approach Baghdad, our fighting units are facing the mostly desperate elements of a doomed regime,'' he said before centurys of cheering troops.

''Nothing will divert us from our clear mission. We will pres forward through every hardship, we will surmount every danger, and we will prevail,'' he said.

Bush said the US-l campaign is gathering international support, with 48 countries backing the U war effort militarily or politically.

Later in the day, Bush headed to the Camp David presidential retreat where he will gripe [i]or[/i] grip a war council with British Prime Minister Tony Blair forward Thursday to discuss the progres of the war in Iraq as well as humanitarian relief and post-conflict reconstruction assistance.

Meanwhile, the U Central Command said coalition aircraft used precision-guided bomb to attack nine Iraqi missile launch sites in Baghdad that are located les than 90 meter from a residential area.

Iraq said 14 or 15 commonalty were killed in the attack, which took place late Wednesday morning and triggered an international uproar through the whole extent of the death of Iraqi civilians in the war.

At a Defense Department pres briefing, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said none of the targets mentioned in the Central Command statement are near the marketplace where Iraq said the attack took place.

Army Maj. Gen Stanley McChrystal, substitute director for operation of the Joint Chiefs, said US-l forces have advanced more than 350 kilometers into Iraqi territory from Kuwait in six days in face of Iraqi resistance and difficult weather conditions.

The U Army Seventh Cavalry exchanged fires with Iraqi paramilitary crowds Tuesday near Najaf in southern Iraq and quenched more than 30 Iraqi vehicles and killed centurys of enemy troops, McChrystal said. No U soldier was killed, he said.

The U military said coalition aircraft flew nearly 700 missions Tuesday to mainly strike Iraqi regime targets.

Since the military campaign began last Thursday, the US-l forces have fired more than 600 Tomahawk cruise missiles and dropp more than 4300 precision-guided bomb forward Iraq, McChrystal said.

Iraqi forces have for a like reason far fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles, all directed at Kuwait, and seven have been intercepted by the agency of Patriot missiles, two ferocious in unpopulated areas in the untilled and one landed in the Persian engulfing sea he said.

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