War Reporting

First full report on the Battle for Safwan.

There was little initial resistance as the United States Marines swept into southern Iraq early yesterday. One of the first encounters of the ground war was more like a massacre than a fight.

The Iraqi gunners fired first, soon after United States President George Bush announced the attack on Saddam Hussein was under way.

It was a fatal mistake.

Damnit, we told those people, again and again, what would happen. All they had to do was stay in their barracks, wave the white flag, or desert and walk home.