http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=2493599
U.S. Says Vanguard 19 Miles from S. Baghdad
Wed April 2, 2003 07:36 AM ET
SOUTH OF BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in the vanguard of an advance on Baghdad from the southwest were just 19 miles from the southern edge of the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, a U.S. military source in the field told Reuters.
Forward units of a second advance, from the southeast along the Tigris river valley, were as near as 25 miles away.
A Reuters correspondent with units of the U.S. Third Infantry Division west of the Euphrates river near Kerbala, 70 miles south of Baghdad, quoted officers saying their advance had met less resistance than expected.
To the east, U.S. Marines said they crossed the Tigris river near Kut, 68 miles southeast of the capital, early on Wednesday and took control of the important Highway 6 leading to Baghdad, a sprawling city of five million that straddles the Tigris.