A fresh report from the AP correspondent on board the USS Kitty Hawk has been published. Sounds like the pilots are focused on the Baghdad area today.
U.S. warplanes launching from the Gulf are pounding Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad to soften defenses around the Iraqi capital in preparation for a U.S.-led ground assault, senior Navy officers said. Navy strike planes took off Saturday from the USS Kitty Hawk for the latest bombing missions to support Army and Marine forces consolidating south of Baghdad. "These are all close air support missions in order to prep the battlefield for the advance of our ground troops," Costello said.
Kitty Hawk-based planes dropped 46 bombs on missions into the early hours of Saturday, including six 2,000-pound target penetrator, or "bunker buster" satellite-guided bombs, eight JSOW satellite-guided bombs, 26 500-pound laser-guided bombs and six 500-pound unguided bombs. Kitty Hawk-based planes hit a Baath Party headquarters, surface-to-surface missile canisters, a military compound, other buildings, tanks and an early warning radar site, officials said. All the targets were between Karbala and Baghdad.
Posted by Alan at March 29, 2003 11:19 AM