March 18, 2003

AND SO TO WAR.

First shots fired at sea as allied battle plan unfolds(David Sharrock, Michael Evans, timesonline.co.uk)

The first shots of the war have been fired, killing at least one Iraqi during a suspected operation to mine the waters off Kuwait. But that opening skirmish is about to be dwarfed by the most formidable military assault in modern warfare: 250,000 British and American troops — backed by more than 1,000 aircraft, 400 tanks and a 110-strong armada — are poised to unleash their awesome power on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq the moment the order is given.

The first clash occurred in the mouth of the Khawr al-Zubayr river, a few miles south of the port of Umm Qasr, when a Kuwaiti gunboat challenged a flotilla of about 25 Iraqi dhows. The boats failed to respond and the Kuwaitis opened fire. It was unclear whether the dhows had laid any mines.

Unnamed sources are suggesting that the Iraqi rejection of the President's 48 hour ultimatum may mean that the US will not wait until tomorrow night. Some operations, including Special Forces teams probing the front lines, have been going on for the last few days. Alliance troops have moved out of their bases to forward positions on the Kuwaiti/Iraqi border. There are some odd reports of a considerable number of military vehicles moving south through Turkey. Apparently, we have cell phone numbers for Iraqi soldiers of widely disparate ranks, and are calling many of them directly. I still say that the bombing will start tomorrow night, but for all intents and purposes we're prosecuting the war now, and probably have been for the last few weeks.

Posted by David Cohen at March 18, 2003 10:35 PM
Comments

The theatre of operations is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Assuming (arbitrarily) that sunset is at 1800 hours (6 pm), and bearing in mind that American soldiers very much prefer to fight at night, I would suggest that a close watch be kept on the front starting from 10 am EST today.

Posted by: Joe at March 19, 2003 5:47 AM

There's apparently a sandstorm going on in Kuwait at this time which is cutting visibility down to 200 meters in the field. It should clear up by tonight (their time, I think), and visibility is predicted clear for tomorrow.

Posted by: Joe at March 19, 2003 5:50 AM

Joe:



Meteorology among your skills too?

Posted by: oj at March 19, 2003 8:11 AM

:)



Actually, I saw the reports on another blog and confirmed it on CNN's web site.

Posted by: Joe at March 19, 2003 9:25 AM

All the same, our troops' concern about sandstorms' effect on their equipment's electronics is no joke. There was an article in the WaPo several weeks back about a big foofooraw in the 101st about whether they should be painting their helicopters' rotor blades over or covering the blade edges with duct tapes to protect against dust and sand. It went all the way up to the division's aviation commander, who resolved the argument by ordering that tape be used, only to find in the end that the warehouse with all the division's stocks of duct tape had had its roof caved in by last month's snowstorms on the East Coast!

Posted by: Joe at March 19, 2003 9:28 AM
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