Umm Qasr

DAY 1 Wednesday, MArch 19 In Iraq, Hussein promised an Iraqi victory in a broadcast to his people. He condemned the U.S. attack as "a shameful crime." DAY 2 Thursday, March 20 The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq got under way as American ground forces crossed from Kuwait into southern Iraq and headed toward the port city of Basra and also toward Baghdad. U.S. Army soldiers and Marines met scattered resistance, with heavy artillery rounds fired into southern Iraq to pave the way for advancing helicopters and troops, signaling the start of the ground war. Iraq retaliated for the first night's missile strike on Baghdad by launching a small number of short-range missiles toward U.S. and British military units massed near the border in northern Kuwait.

KUWAIT CITY - The southern Iraq port city of Umm Qasr was under the control of U.S. and British troops yesterday, military officials said, opening a key route for humanitarian aid that could begin arriving in about two days. If that news sounds familiar, it might be because Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld made the same announcement Friday. That turned out to be overly optimistic. Coalition forces continued to face lightly armed but exceptionally persistent members of the ragtag fedayeen, the zealous Iraqi militia that for nearly a decade has been the brutal force behind Saddam Hussein's fist.

WASHINGTON - Soon, President Bush said yesterday, the Iraqi people would see "the great compassion" of the United States and other nations that have pledged to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in need of food, water, medicine or shelter. But, as U.S. and British troops battle their way to Baghdad, the continued deadly fighting in southern Iraq has delayed such relief, with some aid workers saying it could be days, if not weeks, before the region is safe enough for anyone but the military to enter.

AZ ZUBAYR, Iraq -- The Iraqi lieutenant colonel began to cry yesterday when a cameraman tried to film his surrender to British soldiers near this dusty southern Iraqi town. "My family is in Baghdad," he pleaded. Then he made a slitting motion against his throat. "There are still a lot of Saddam's supporters here," said the officer, who was too terrified to give his name. As U.S.-led coalition troops push toward Baghdad, they're leaving behind pockets of insecurity in southern Iraq where Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's agents continue to wield power and intimidate the local populace.

WASHINGTON - In a stark sign of the unpredictable risks they face, U.S.-led forces have suffered casualties in attacks by irregular Iraqi troops, some dressed as civilians, and by others who had signaled surrender, officials say. From the port town of Umm Qasr to the cities of Basra and An Nasiriyah, coalition soldiers met yesterday with the stiffest resistance of the Iraq war. Senior military officers said the irregular forces might be composed of...

WASHINGTON - In a frantic mix of Arabic and English, the 20 or so Iraqi exiles talked about everything from the safety of their families - most of them still in Baghdad - to the most recent targets of the air raids. Gathered at a Georgetown rowhouse yesterday morning, the Iraqi National Group, as the exiles call themselves, meets once a month to plan for what they hope will be Iraq's transition to democracy. They support U.S. military action, but this meeting was suffused with anxiety and fear.

KUWAIT CITY - U.S. officials from President Bush on down have cautioned that war with Iraq could be difficult, and there was growing evidence yesterday that American and British troops, at least in some pockets of fighting, are facing more resistance than military planners expected. The glimpses of war as seen on television and in newspaper stories carrying Iraq datelines offer a view of the war mostly in narrow slices - what a camera on a hotel roof can capture of the bombing of Baghdad, what reporters traveling with troops can see in an extremely limited field of view.