Ramping Up For Long Campaign?

The ferocious sandstorm that halted the U.S. drive on Baghdad lifted Thursday and coalition warplanes were back in the sky in force, blasting Iraqi armor that probed American lines as troops resumed their advance 50 miles south of the capital.

Dropping out of the night sky, 1,000 U.S. paratroopers opened a northern front against Saddam Hussein's forces.

With the skies finally clear after two days of sandstorms, and good weather forecast for the next few days, U.S. commanders said allied forces would step up attacks.

"You'll certainly see us increase our activity in the coming hours, days, given the clearing weather," an official at U.S. Central Command said, speaking on condition on anonymity.

On Thursday, skies cleared over Baghdad after one of the worst sandstorms in memory. For some residents, the blue skies heightened fears of more intensive air strikes.

"The fighting is only going to get more intense, but it's only going to get more intense on the American side," Brig. General Vincent Brooks said during a Central Command briefing Thursday.

Brooks said with clear skies, "the Air Force and Navy can fly more and more strikes against the Republican Guard divisions that are ringed around Baghdad.

"We are once again back on track to begin this final battle for Baghdad."

But despite the optimism expressed by Central Command, the Washington Post reported Thursday some senior U.S. military officers are now convinced that the war is likely to last months and will require considerably more combat power than is now on hand there and in Kuwait.

The Post reports the combination of ferocious weather, long and unstable supply lines and an enemy that has resisted in the face of American military might has led to a broad reassessment by some top generals of U.S. military expectations and timelines.

Some of them, the Post reports, see even the potential threat of a drawn-out fight that sucks in more and more U.S. forces.

Near the southern Iraq city of an-Nasiriyah, more than 30 U.S. Marines were injured, two seriously, in an accidental exchange of fire between American units, according to reporters for French and British media who were with the Marines. ITV correspondent James Mates said two groups of Marines were dispatched during the night to repel an Iraqi contingent, but ended up firing at each other.

While the U.S. Central Command said it had no information on the incident, the Post reports, "A certain amount of chaos has developed, exacerbated by sniping and immense traffic backlogs from the Kuwaiti border."

"There's tremendous fog out there," an officer told the Post, referring to the confusion of wartime operations, with logistical commanders struggling to figure out where various supply items are in a system that at times resembles "just a bunch of guys out there driving around."

U.S. troops have engaged in fierce firefights in and around the south-central city of Najaf in recent days.

North of Najaf, southeast of the deepest advance to around Karbala, Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, commanding officer of Marine 3rd Battery, 4th Regiment said this regiment was engaged in fighting Wednesday but had not met significant Iraqi resistance Thursday.

AP Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer reported that McCoy said his troops were still moving toward Baghdad and expect to meet regular Iraqi military. The Marines have been running into people taking potshots at them, but had not encountered concentrations of Republican Guards. The troops had slowed considerably, and made only 6 miles on Wednesday as they searched roadsides to clear guerrilla attackers.

"Our job now is killing," McCoy said, referring to Iraqi resistance.

The first American aircraft, a C-130 cargo plane, landed Thursday at Iraq's second largest airport, Tallil airbase, just outside an-Nasiriyah. Tallil is expected to be a major resupply base for American forces.

In Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, about 30 miles south of the Turkish border, Rangers and other paratroopers from the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade were working Thursday to secure an airfield where supplies and support personnel will arrive.

Their airdrop overnight — leaping from low-flying C-17 transport planes — marked the first large deployment of U.S. ground troops in the region. Previously, only small groups of U.S. Special Forces were operating along with allied Kurdish fighters.

Providing cover for the airdrop, three waves of combat planes from the USS Theodore Roosevelt hit Iraqi ground troops and artillery batteries.

In central Iraq, U.S. forces moved closer to Baghdad on several routes; one of the Army columns was 10 miles long. Battles with Iraqi troops flared in several areas, but troop movements overall were easier due to a break in the fierce sandstorms that had buffeted soldiers.

Outside Karbala, southwest of Baghdad, small groups of Iraqi armored personnel carriers approached American positions but were hit by U.S. warplanes before getting within 10 miles.

"I can't believe they keep doing this. It's suicide to come at us like this," said Lt. Eric Hooper.

In southern Iraq, British forces engaged and destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks that tried to break out of the besieged southern city of Basra Thursday morning, Group Capt. Al Lockwood said. British Army tanks of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards engaged the tanks in a swift battle and destroyed all of them, he said.

Iraqi forces have made at least three attempts to break out of Basra since Tuesday, according to British military officials. Group Capt. Al Lockwood said the latest column came out of the city overnight, possibly to engage coalition forces. He said the columns were manned by Iraqi soldiers being forced to fight by Saddam Hussein's loyalists holding Basra.

Humanitarian aid is supposed to come through the port of Umm Qasr, which has been captured by the coalition. However, Burridge said Thursday that Iraqi mines were discovered in the port, delaying the arrival of a ship carrying 200 tons of aid until mine-sweeping is completed.