April 4 – Friday
3rd Infantry – SW of Baghdad
BBC 0140: US serviceman killed by friendly fire in central Iraq, after being mistaken for an Iraqi soldier while he was investigating a destroyed tank.
BBC CentCom, Qatar :: Peter Hunt:: 0155GMT A soldier from the US 5th Corps was killed on Thursday afternoon in central Iraq. He had been close to and examining a destroyed Iraqi tank when colleagues who were nearby mistook him for an enemy soldier and opened fire.
BBC 0245: The US military says that 320 Iraqi troops have been killed so far in the battle for the Saddam International Airport.
BBC 0330: The US military has gained complete control of Baghdad airport, says US battalion commander.
BBC 0420: US Army intelligence officer says 80% of Baghdad airport in Americans hands.
BBC 0500: Sources say the Iraqis remain in full control of the approach road from the Baghdad airport to the city and appear to be piling reinforcements into the area.
8 a.m. today, Col. William F. Grimsley said 75 percent of the airport was in American hands. He said his men had seized the V.I.P. terminal of the airport. The troops attacked the western, military part of the airport first, then moved on the eastern civilian side that is closer to Baghdad. Fighting could still be heard from the control tower. – Patrick Tyler, New York Times
BBC 0610: Western correspondents accompanying US troops at the Baghdad airport say Iraqi troops launch counter-attacks, with heavy gunfire and artillery exchanges taking place in the area.
BBC South Central Iraq with American 3rd Infantry division :: Gavin Hewitt :: 1026GMT In the past 48 hours the Americans have been surprised at how light the resistance has been and they do now believe that the Iraqis have probably lost their ability to command and control large units. Although some of the pockets have fought fiercely what they're not up against so far is large formations.
BBC South of Baghdad :: Gavin Hewitt :: 1646GMT We were in an armoured column going through a town south of Baghdad today and a large number of people came out onto the streets.
Units of the 101st Airborne Division arrived to use the airport as a base of operation close to the capital. – Associated Press
1st Marine Division – SE of Baghdad
BBC With the 1st Marine Division :: David Willis :: 0545GMT We crossed the Tigris river overnight having engaged in a brief but fierce battle with the Republican Guard. I would have said we were probably about 50 miles or so from the capital. We were driving most of the night. We've just come past twisted piles of metal by the roadside, armoured vehicles, tanks belonging to the Republican Guard reduced to burned out shells, following an attempted ambush which brought a very robust response from the Americans.
BBC 1050: US Marines approaching Baghdad along the Tigris River from al-Kut report that about 2,500 Republican Guards have surrendered overnight. US Central Command spokesman Navy Capt. Frank Thorp says there is no outright confirmation of the report.
BBC Central Iraq :: David Willis :: 1052GMT The Republican Guard clearly has not retreated into the city, as we discovered accompanying the US Marines along the Tigris river. Thirty five miles south of Baghdad the Marines were ambushed. The resulting fire fight lasted more than an hour.
BBC Central Iraq :: David Willis :: 1313GMT The desert sky is black with smoke. I saw dozens of Iraqi tanks engulfed in flames as the marines travelled towards Baghdad.
First Marine Division raced behind the Nida division, whose burnt-out tanks littered the roadside. Local residents cheered the Americans, as they did on Thursday. Today's advance left the marines about 10 miles from downtown Baghdad. – Dexter Filkins, New York Times with the 1st Marine Division
BBC 1635: A US commander who led a push by marines through southern Iraq has been relieved of his post. Colonel Joe Dowdy was commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Regimental Combat Team 1.
Marine Task Force Tarawa is 70 miles south of Baghdad. – Michael Wilson, New York Times with Marine Task Force Tarawa [This unit is independent of the 1st Marine Division. – Ed.]
Inside Baghdad
BBC Baghdad :: Andrew Gilligan :: 0522GMT The water is off here
BBC Baghdad :: Rageh Omaar :: 0707GMT There's been no official comment by the Iraqi authorities about the situation at Saddam International airport.
BBC 1555: Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf has said that US forces at Baghdad's main airport are encircled and isolated.
BBC 1640: Saddam Hussein has made a television appearance, calling on the Iraqi people to strike against US troops surrounding Baghdad.
BBC 1830: Iraqi TV has shown footage of what it said was President Saddam Hussein visiting residential areas in Baghdad on Friday.
BBC Baghdad :: Andrew Gilligan :: 0809GMT From our end, the airport story isn't over yet. We have extremely reliable reports that the airport road remains in Iraqi hands, and troops have defensive positions with their guns ready. Also, that large numbers of reinforcements are pouring down that road. We think the US may well indeed control significant parts of the airport
BBC Baghdad :: Michael Voss :: 0958GMT Coalition forces are in control of most of Baghdad airport, but this sprawling civilian and military complex is far from secure. An Iraqi counter-offensive was repulsed early this morning and the airport remains within artillery range of Iraqi positions inside Baghdad.
BBC Baghdad :: Paul Wood :: 1517GMT I've just come from a news conference with the Iraqi Information minister. He painted a very different picture of this war to the one we get from allied command. They say they have deliberately allowed the airport to be taken to cut off the US troops there. They are promising unconventional warfare tonight - what they call martyrdom operations - after the hours of darkness.
BBC Baghdad :: Paul Wood :: 1820GMT The Iraqis I watched the broadcast with this evening were in no doubt that this was their President and he was still in Baghdad.
Thousands of residents fled Baghdad in a stream of bumper-to-bumper vehicles after U.S. troops seized the city’s airport. Electricity and water remain cut after more overnight bombings. Thousands of Marines massed on the outskirts of the capital. – Associated Press
North of Baghdad
BBC 1134: The US Central Command says a car exploded near a checkpoint set up by US-led forces in Iraq on Thursday night, killing three of their soldiers, a pregnant woman and the car's driver. A US military spokesman says the blast - northwest of Baghdad - appears to be a suicide attack.
BBC Centcom, Qatar :: Jonathan Marcus :: 1146GMT It does look as though this is the second suicide bombing we've heard of. It happened about eighteen kilometres south west of the Hadithatha dam.
BBC Kuwait :: Paul Greer :: 2011GMT Medicine san Frontiers has suspended its operation across the whole of Iraq following the disappearance of two team members Wednesday evening. The two were working in a hospital in the north east of Baghdad.
BBC Doha, Qatar :: Michael Voss :: 2038GMT To the north of the capital, there are reports that the road to Tikrit has been closed by heavy bombing and according to the Americans there are also special forces operating in the same area.
Northern Iraq and Kurdistan
BBC 1515: Correspondents accompanying advancing Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq say massive plumes of smoke are rising from oilfields near the town of Kirkuk.
In the north, bombing cleared the way for Kurdish forces to seize a key bridge at Khazer, near the major city of Mosul. – Associated Press
Najaf – 101st Airborne Division
The most prominent Shiite cleric in Iraq reportedly instructed Muslims not to interfere with Allied troops advancing through the country. On March 27, the grand ayatollah had issued a fatwa forbidding any cooperation with invading forces.– New York Times
American soldiers, at the behest of an Iraqi officer, topple a Hussein statue in Najaf. – New York Times
A spokesman for the Army said on Wednesday that paramilitary fighters loyal to Mr. Hussein were firing on Americans from the mosque. That claim left American soldiers on the ground here puzzled. Lt. Col. Ben Hodges, the commander of the First Brigade, which is responsible for that part of the city, said he knew nothing about paramilitary use of the mosque. "I have yet to find a soldier or leader who heard or saw firing from the mosque," Colonel Hodges said. – Jim Dwyer, New York Times with the 101st Airborne Division
This morning, a delegation of soldiers set out to visit Ayatollah Ali Alsestani, the leading Shiite imam, in hopes of discussing a new government for the town. Ayatollah Alsestani had been under house arrest by the Hussein government for at least a decade, military officials said, but the advance of American troops into the city this week sent his captors fleeing. As the soldiers turned toward his residence, a group on the street became alarmed. Upon hearing that the Americans were coming to arrest the cleric. In response, the soldiers dropped to one knee, and their leader, Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, quickly called off the visit. "It got very intense there," Colonel Hughes said. – Jim Dwyer, New York Times with the 101st Airborne Division
Southern Iraq, Nasiriyah and Basra
BBC Southern Iraq :: Caroline Wyatt:: 0514GMT It has been a relatively peaceful night here in the south. there were exchanges of artillery fire in the city of Basra. Iraqi militia have been firing at British positions from the local technical college.
BBC Outside Basra, Southern Iraq :: Clive Myrie :: 0540GMT Royal Marines from 40 Commando have been trying to win hearts and minds. troops and tanks turned up to destroy the Baath party headquarters here and it had been trashed the night before by locals
BBC Southern Iraq :: Caroline Wyatt :: 1120GMT We've heard about a morning raid by the 7th Armoured Brigade in Basra, into what they call the shanty town in the city centre. They were engaged by the Iraqi militia who were holding out there. They say they killed eight militiamen in the raid.
BBC Southern Iraq :: Caroline Wyatt :: 1326GMT We have been hearing from Iraqis today that they are worried about the breakup of society. They say that now the Baath party has gone from many of these areas, there is nothing to replace it. They feel there is a lack of law and order. The British hired local lorry drivers to transport the water away from the British water pipe that was installed in Umm Qasr. They are selling the water on. It seems that some kind of a mafia has stepped in here.
BBC Nasiriya, Southern Central Iraq :: Adam Mynott :: 0537GMT There has been a lot of looting going on. As US marines have moved in, a lot of people have moved out of town but the intention is to stop that lawlessness.
BBC Nasiriya :: Andrew North :: 1858GMT American marines here are stepping up efforts to remove posters, murals and other symbols of Saddam Hussein's regime from the city.
nine of 11 bodies discovered in the same raid that freed Pfc. Jessica Lynch are believed to be those of American soldiers. – Associated Press
Special Operations
Special Operations MC-130 Combat Talon transport plane touched down on the median of a highway linking Baghdad to Karbala shortly before midnight Thursday. Special Operations units that are being moved into position around Baghdad. The goal will be to neutralize Baath Party militias and the Saddam Fedayeen. The road used as a runway was controlled by United States marines south of Baghdad. Special Operations forces had been using an airfield in Talil, to the south. But this new makeshift airstrip will provide much quicker access into Baghdad. - James Dao, New York Times With Special Operations Forces In Iraq
Kuwait and Elsewhere
BBC 0045: Opinion poll in Argentina shows more people have a positive image of Saddam Hussain than of George W Bush. Almost 25% had a good opinion of the Iraqi leader, against less than 16% for the American president.
BBC 1254: US officers say they have found thousands of boxes containing vials of white powder and liquid at a "suspicious site" near Latifiya south of Baghdad.
Announced military casualties in the Iraq war zone as of 5 p.m. eastern time Thursday: - New York Times
KILLED CAPTURED
OR MISSING
U.S. 53* 23*
BRITAIN 27† 0†
IRAQ N.A. 8,000†
*U.S. Department of Defense;
†British Defense Ministry
American commanders estimate that more than 2,000 Iraqi troops were killed as coalition forces swept north from the Kuwaiti border to the outskirts of Baghdad. The latest Pentagon calculation of American losses is 54 dead, 7 captured and 16 missing. British troops have reported 27 dead. – New York Times
At an industrial site south of Baghdad, a U.S. officer said troops had found thousands of boxes of white powder, documents written in Arabic on how to engage in chemical warfare, and atropine, a nerve agent antidote. U.S. officials said they were investigating. However, the Associated Press reported that a U.S. official said the white powder may be conventional explosives. – Washington Post

April 3 – Thursday Supplement
3rd Infantry – SW of Baghdad
After crossing the Euphrates, one brigade of the 3rd Infantry heads north, the other heads east. One brigade blocks highways 1 and 8 where they intersect. Other elements reach Airport. – New York Times
The tank battalions of the Army's Third Infantry Division were the vanguard of a two-pronged assault on the capital Thursday from the southwest and southeast. – Patrick Tyler, New York Times
Thursday's assault began when the division's Second Brigade swept eastward from the bridgehead captured on Tuesday at the Euphrates and seized a crucial intersection at Routes 1 and 8. Midday the Second Brigade had encountered resistance from Iraqi forces estimated to number "several thousand," including parts of the Republican Guard's Medina and Hammarabi Divisions. The First Brigade's main armored force, the Third Battalion of the 69th Armored, fought early this morning against at least a company of Republican Guard soldiers around the bridgehead. According to unconfirmed reports, more than 550 Iraqis died, including one believed to be the commander of the Medina Division's 10th Armored Brigade. – Steven Lee Myers, New York Times with the 3rd Infantry Division
The first tanks of the Army's Third Infantry Division arrived at 7:30 p.m., punching through the outer wall of the sprawling airport. After crossing the Euphrates at Yasin al-Khudayr, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, during a brief but intense battle on Tuesday, the First Brigade occupied the southern part of this airport and by Thursday night had begun to press northward as more columns of tanks and armored vehicles rumbled through the breaches in the airport's walls. By this morning, most of the airport was under the control of American forces, Colonel Grimsley said. The airport — rather than Baghdad itself — was the division's ultimate objective when it crossed the border from Kuwait on March 20. As the first tanks rolled into the airport, an officer of the Third Battalion of the 69th Armored, reported seeing a commercial airliner on a taxiway. – Steven Lee Myers, New York Times with the 3rd Infantry Division
1st Marine Division – SE of Baghdad
After crossing the Tigris at Numaniyah, two regiments of Marines from the 1st Marine Division head north and are now on both sides of the Tigris 20 miles from Baghdad. 1st Marine Regiment is fighting around Kut. – New York Times