How the world followed tanks into the city

The media

A dramatic blow-by-blow account of America's push into Baghdad was delivered from the turret of a tank yesterday by an embedded Fox News correspondent, Greg Kelly. As confusion reigned over the nature and extent of the US forces' grip on the Iraqi capital, television news networks relayed a to-camera report recorded live during the early stages of their initial push into the city.

Surveying the scene from the top of a turret, a helmeted Kelly delivered his report as a column of US tanks from the 3rd Infantry Division surged along Route Eight into Baghdad's suburbs.

His cameraman, Mal James, filmed what appeared to be sporadic attacks by rocket-propelled grenades and dilapidated pick-up trucks being rammed against the advancing tanks. Scattered along the dual carriageway were the smoking, sometimes flaming, remains of vehicles already destroyed by the convoy. "Some of these vehicles that have come at us were clearly civilian vehicles," said Kelly, in the report, which was later relayed by most news networks. "In those cases, we saw warning shots fired, the operators of the armoured vehicles waving their hands saying 'go back, go back', and they returned to where they were coming from uninjured.

"But a lot of these vehicles were coming at us clearly with hostile intent. The clean-up of Baghdad is under way."

As the tanks rolled forward, Kelly became directly involved in the shouted exchanges between the US troops and terrified Iraqis.

One man, identified as an Iraqi soldier by his khaki trousers, was shown removing a gas mask from around his neck and dropping to the ground. Moments later, another man emerged from behind a bush, his hands raised in the air, prompting Kelly to exclaim: "Watch out, there's a guy! Don't shoot him!" Kelly then turned to the camera, saying: "Another surrender. They're keeping their hands up. Unbelievable."

What appeared to be the dead body of another Iraqi lay at the side of the road.

Kelly periodically broke off from describing events around him to deliver an upbeat assessment of the war's progress. "Absolute success as far as mission accomplishment," he said. "We had one great American hero who gave his life today, really to free this country and to protect our country from terrorism.

"We currently have two WIAs (wounded-in-actions) who we think will make it through and will be returned to duty."

Asked by a studio reporter for an estimate of how many Iraqi casualties there had been during the approach to Baghdad, he said: "We usually don't get into the business of body counts. As far as magnitude of enemy killed, it was well over 1,000.

"They've lost their capability on a very strategic part of the city and... [it] will allow us basically to complete the collapse of the regime."

Later, Kelly elaborated on the initial stages of the advance, telling Sky News: "A lot of the [Iraqi] soldiers picked up their weapons and ran."

But he conceded there had been stiffer opposition once the approaching forces had reached more central districts of the city.

"At first there was very little resistance but further towards the centre it became significant, quite intense," he said. "The Republican Guard were coming up to the convoy in small pick-up trucks and trying to ram our vehicles. They were engaged rather decisively."

Meanwhile, Baghdad-based reporters including the BBC's Rageh Omaar said last night they could see no sign of US forces in the capital, despite stumbling upon the charred remains of civilian vehicles.