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Show THE DAILY HERAl Page A6 IX (www.HarttheHerald .ami), ftma. Utah, Fnday. March 28. 2003 IRAQ Continued from A 1 the war will continue for "however long it takes." "This isnt a matter of timetable it's a matter of victory" Bush said. "And the Iraqi people have got to know that They have got to know that they will be liberated and Saddam Hussein will be removed, no matter how long it takes." There was some movement forward Thursday. A northern front began to take shape as US. paratroopers moved into position in Kurdish-' territory and the controlled first Iraqi lines collapsed. And US4ed forces in central Iraq pounded Iraqi positions in and around the city of Najaf They also fought near the southern city of for a fifth day and along Nasiriyah . . il . C i. Key supply ruuies uiai luim uicuu uauauieu oi uie auvaiiw spine dad. But throughout the combat theater, military commanders scrambled to readjust their battlefield plan. US and British forces continued to encounter unexpectedly stiff resistance in parts of southern Iraq. i While the weather had been blamed for delays in the charge toward Baghdad, some of hose on the front fines acknowledged that the 3rd Infantry's Second Brigade may have advanced too rapidly and needed to hold up. Military planners said they had none of the resistance in anticipated v. -- ziz xt ;; v. cuiu4 vr;" SUUl as laauiycui Clues ixajcu. to bypass popuintended had They lation centers, concentrate on sever-in- e tile central government, and then await surrenders from smaller commands. i nonesuy uunK uiey nau us move so fast because they thought it'd he a fast collaibse ." said CaDt. Steven Barry, commander of "Cyclone" Company in the Army's 4th Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment "Now that they realize it's not going to be a fast collapse, they've 1 1 - OIVK UV.XA(U V V T 11 (ufu KI. - i I1, 1 ... JEROME DELAVTbe Associated Press Strong explosions nit central Baghdad Thursday night survivors of fierce fighting around Nasiriyah are being treated, US. soldiers described their shock at the resistance that greeted them. "We were very surprised," Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Menard said. "We were told as we were going through Nasiriyah that there would be little to no resistance." He and other members of his battalion had been led to expect scenes of mass Iraqi surrenders like those from the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Instead, "when we got in, it was a whole different ballgame," recalled Menard, 21. "They weren't rolling over like we thought they would. No new US. or British casualties were reported Thursday. However; The Washington Post reported in today's editions that nine Marines killed in Nasiriyah on Sunday may have been the victims of friendly fire , not enemy artillery. Eleven Marines were killed in the battle; the Post cited an unidentified source as saying preliminary indications suggest that nine of them may have been hit by fire from an 0 111V11 deliberate." Half a hemisphere away in Land-stuhGermany, where the injured l, ;: . tr-- t ,. 1 - 4 f A-1- ' - Thunderbolt Supply-lin- e of the Senate's Amber alert bill, said the sen- x huit iiau iiupeu mat uie nuuse would approve the alert system expansion in a separate bin, one that "would not have held Amber alert hostage to other legislative agenda." House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, of the House legislation, said he wanted a bill that not only would help recover 1 3 1 ...- penalties against kidnapping and aids law enforcement agcutico w eittt Lively jji invent, investigate and prose- AwniQB arri-?r- Vii1wt " Sensenbrenner said. The Amber alert system has been implemented in of the more than states, and it gained national attention in August when it helped locate two teenage girls abducted in California. ly. .,.'.: "Our children can't afford to wait another day for the National Amber alert bill, so we urge the House not to waste this opportunity to act on the legislation that has two-thir- 1 ICOIUCUV US.-Briti- high-profi- le missinff children hut. would also prevent crimes. "The bill strengthens nia on named for Amber Hagerman, who was kida murdered in and napped Arlington, Texas, in 1996. The system has helped to .locate 52 missing children since 1996, including five in March, according to Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit advocacy group based . in Alexandria, Va. In the wake of several kidnappings last year, Allen said he supports the bills passed in both the Senate and the House. Establishing a nationwide Amber alert system is important, he said, but only "one of the things that America needs to do." The family of. Elizabeth Smart has written several letters asking House Republicans to accept the simpler Amber alert bill and vote on the other provisions separate- Continued from A 1 already passed the Senate twice, the Smart family lAXJUUCllU'" the House for enacting legislation that would expand the alert system nationwide. ed wrote. Amendments added to the "I look forward to legisla- bill ban child pornography tion reaching, my desk as quickly as possible so that I may sign it into law," Bush said in a statement, Last year, Bush moved to expand the alert system by making funds available to that uses computer-generate- d it illegal to use a misleading domain name, leading youngsters ' to images and make obscene content. The legislation also eliminates the statute of limitations for child abductions and sex Justice Department to name crimes, denies pretrial, release for child rapists and child an Amber alert coordinator. Amber. which stands for, abductors, requires mandatory America's Missing: Broadcast life sentencing for repeat sex Emergency Response noti- offenders, establishes lifetime fies the public through elec-- . supervision of released sex tronic road signs and TV and offenders and includes a miniradio broadcasts that a child mum prison sentenc- -' is missing. The system is ing for kidnappers. , 20-ye- ar prob- lems added to the rigors facing the forward units of U.S troops, now within 50 miles of Baghdad. Attacks MaRKa fcRY l he Associated Press A U.S. Marines Assault Amphibian Battalion passes a road sign pointing the way to Baghdad on Thursday. ALERT V is?" con as vicious sandstorms let up. voys and three days of sandstorms and foggy weather had slowed the delivery of badly needed supplies of food, water, ammunition and spare vehicle parts. In at least one Marine unit,, meals ready to eat have been rationed to just one a day because supplies are so short Some damaged helicopters were kept grounded by a lack of repair parts. US commanders predicted that improved weather today would speed the convoys and allow for the more efficient stockpiling of supplies where the forward troops can use them. One such forward base opened for business Thursday after being captured by US forces Saturday. A supply plane landed at an airfield in Talliljust outside Nasiriyah, bringing the first of many planned shipments of materiel and troops, The Associated Press reported. Wags posted a sign: "Bush International Airport." Improved weather is also expected to allow fight infantry forces to move northward: Some units were slowed or halted Thursday by foggy weather, although others reveled in sunshine after two days of sandC-1- storms that had turned the sky a soupy orange. Powdery dust continued to blow across the Persian Gulf, grounding some planes on aircraft carriers and forcing others to land at friendly Gulf airports rather than carry out their sorties. Still, more than 190 sorties were launched from the Abraham Lincoln, Constellation and Kitty Hawk. "These are the worst conditions I've ever seen in the Middle East," a Chinook helicopter pilot said after a harrowing flight was called back because pilots lost visual contact with other US helicopters and '. feared collisions. US officers stressed that their forces had moved at impressive speeds until bad weather and stiff Iraqi resistance slowed the advance north. "We went 200 miles in two days," one officer said. He noted that Gen. George Patten's 3rd Army moved 100 miles in two days to relieve US forces at Bastogne in . ; 1944. Coalition planes flew 500 bombing runs Thursday, striking 200 targets, often with multiple bombs, Air Force officials reported. For the second day in a row, the targets were the Medina Division, south of Baghdad, and the Hammurabi Division in the north. Powerful explosions shook Baghdad on Thursday and early today, and a billowing plume of smoke rose high above one of Saddam's presidential compounds. US military B-- 2 officials said a stealth bomber struck what they ' described as a major link in Iraq's national communications network in a tower on the east bank of the. Tigris River. Iraq's defense minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad Jabburi Tai, predicted that the war will come down to a decisive street battle in Baghdad. Iraq will win, he insisted, although the war might last for months. "They have to come into the city eventually," he said. "The enemy can bypass the resistance and go in the desert as far as it wants. In the end, where can he go? He has to enter top-priori- ty bat-wing- the city." In northern Iraq, where 1,000 Currently only six of the 81 students living in SunCrest are in the district, but that number will grow because most of Continued from A 1 the remaining development is within its motorists in SunCrest to drive down the boundaries. officials don't know how this north side ofTraverse Mountain, through willSchool the schools, but they have impact and then around the Point Draper to started monitoring the development of the Mountain, a trip that during high-traffStudents within the bbundaries of times takes up to 45 minutes, said School District have been attendAlpine Draper City Manager Eric Keck. School District because ofthe Jordan ing Highland officials are hoping the lack of access to Utah County schools, new road will deter traffic from but once the road is completed, Alpine snaking through the residential streets will start a bus route to pick them up. If of their city, which weren't built to hanparents don't want their children to be dle a large amount of traffic, said Highbused down, they will have the option to land Planning Commission Chairman apply to send them to Jordan School Steve Draper. The road could also open District instead. Construction of the road has been up a residential and business corridor for the Highland area just east of. held up because of property disputes Micron. over the proposed route of the new road, Along with, the additional homes in but the courts have given the OK to move forward with construction. Utah County, the SunCrest developIn preparation for road construction, ment will mean more students for Highland condemned property for the Alpine School District. ROAD ic VETO Continued from A 1 ' feel the existing statutory language is convoluted and confusing. Once the ordinance has been divided, Knecht wants the council to take action on those definitions at its next meeting. He thinks that part of the provision has enough support to pass and he doesn't want the portion of the ordinance that reduces the number of singles allowed to rent a home to jeopardize the future of an: otherwise good piece of legislation. "If this goes down in flames, it's over," said Knecht,, who proposed the ' ordinance. "We need to separate it out. ... We need 99 percent of this ordinance." Once! the ordinance has . been pared, the provision that reduces the number of singles allowed to rent would be tabled. This part of the legislation places a limit of two, renters in units owned by absentee landlords, but allows property owners who live in their units to rent to two others. It would have affected primarily new developments, however, owners of existing developments that house three singles per unit could have lost their right to do so if they begin to lease to two singles or a family. Several council members said they would be willing to pass an ordinance that would restrict the number of single renters as long as it specifies individual neigh- borhoods rather than apply- ing to the whole city. Councilman 'Paul Warner said that's something he has paratroops from the army's 173rd Airborne Brigade landed overnight, the fines were shifting. Battered for days by US. cruise missiles, Iraqi army troops retreated from hilltop positions without firing a shot as Kurdish fighters, some in taxis and on motorcycles, advanced and civilians looted bunkers of grenades, canteens and gas masks. Iraqi units pulled back 11 miles from Chamchamal toward Kirkuk, Iraq's richest oil city and a potential strategic battlefield for US forces. A military commander for the US-allie- d Kurds said his lightly armed forces now controlled an front line. The buildup of US forces in the north was further in evidence Thursday as soldiers scouted potential sites to serve as their base including at least five schools. To the south, Najaf was shaping up as a focal point of the next phase of fighting. The 3rd Infantry Division units made substantial advances in Najaf, pounding resistance positions with artillery and air bombings. The U.S. forces have been striking Baath Party headquarters and other enemy positions, destroying about 12 vehicles, and killing 40 party officials and about 200 fighters, according to field commanders of the 4th Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment The Pentagon continues to send troops to the region, where an additional 100,000 to 120,000 GIs are expected to join the 250,000 US and 40,000 coalition soldiers, mostly Britona The deployments would substantially increase the force in Iraq, but US. forces would have to wait weeks to use them in a battle for Baghdad. road when city officials couldn't reach an agreement with some property owners. In turn, those property owners took the case to court The 4th District Court for road construction gave the in December, Grampp said. However, three of the property owners have appealed the issue to the Utah Supreme Court. The cases between Mark and Janice Taylor and Sunset Mountain Properties have been resolved, but the case with Bullriver Properties is still before the court, said. Grampp rn 1. . i o liicic tue ocn mi; jjiusneuj nomes in and the development has been approved to build the next 300. The development, which is approved in phases, is starting phase three of what will be a project, Grampp ' oun-Cre- 10-ye- ar said. ' Tammy McPherson can be 0 reached at or 373-505- tmcphersonheraldextra.com advocated all along. He Mayor Billings fails to believes residents should be f VlA Vail IO rf able to decide for themselves and the demand for this if they want the ordinance to ordinance," said J Chris-tenseapply to their neighborhood, adding that he hopes and he wants to pilot the leg- a can be compromise islation in those areas. reached. The most impor"I thought it was best to tant thing is that we have try to work it neighborhood better protection for families by neighborhood? Warner that are struggling with said, "For me, it's just using 'this." some wisdom." However, residents who For more than a year, sevhave tried to defeat the ordieral residents and neighborhood chairs fought to pass nance were gladdened by the the ordinance vetoed by news that it had been killed. It's a victory for the city," Billings, including Planning said Chris Jones, 34, a renter Commissioner Ray tensen, who voted twice to in Provo who works as a n, recommend the ordinance to mortgage broker and is the the council. He said the leg- spokesman for a grass-root- s islation was designed to pregroup called Citizens for serve the1 y s a vicZoning Restraint nature of Provo's neighbortory for compromise." , hoods by taking away incentives to turn homes into Justin Hill can be " rentals. reached at 8 or , "It's disappointing that jhiUheraldextra.com. ' ' If single-famil- 344-254- ? Va';, st |
