Goal of U.S.: Avoid a Siege

NYTimes - Missile-firing Predator drone planes, E-8C Joint Stars ground-surveillance planes and airborne forward air controllers monitored the Iraqi forces as they streamed toward Baghdad. American warplanes carried out bombing raids and Army troops fired Atacms surface-to-surface missiles to blast the Iraqi forces before they reached the relative sanctuary of Iraq's teeming capital.

Still, some Iraqi units have moved to the capital. American military officials reported this evening that forces from the Adnan and Nida Republican Guard Divisions have taken up positions in the western and eastern fringes of the city and that Iraqi troops were at key traffic intersections. Without a major front in the north, the Adnan Division had recently moved south from Mosul, putting its forces in position to move into the capital.

With the new American push toward Baghdad, however, the pendulum has swung decisively in the favor of the United States.