By Douglas Hamilton
Doha - Washington's hopes that United States-led forces would be welcomed into Iraq as liberators bled into the sand on Sunday, the fourth day of war, as Iraqi troops fought back with determination and guerrilla tactics.
There was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction being used by Iraq in battle. Instead, Iraqi troops were fighting with machinegun-mounted Japanese pickup trucks against squadrons of the world's most formidable battle tank, the US Abrams.
There were reports of between 10 and 15 US troops killed in fighting to secure bridgeheads across the River Euphrates at Nassiriyah, with perhaps up to 50 more wounded.
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'The Americans had a hard day today' US General John Abizaid acknowledged it was the "toughest day of resistance" so far. He said Iraqi forces near Nasiriya inflicted several casualties in "the sharpest engagement of the war". There were 12 American troops missing, he added.
"Everybody was predicting they'd be welcomed as liberators but it's working out differently," said one senior Arab official in the Gulf. "The Americans had a hard day today."
Evoking Vietnam and Mogadishu, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf warned US forces they were driving into "a quagmire from which they can never emerge, except dead".
Iraqi forces evidently switched from their disastrous static defence of the 1991 Gulf War to classic guerrilla tactics, using loyalist militias to bolster regular forces.
"There are a number of incidents occurring to the rear of the main combat forces," Abizaid said at the Central Command briefing, indicating guerrilla-style attacks. He said Iraqis had pretended to surrender, then ambushed US forces.
Despite the surrenders of at least 2 000 Iraqis, the picture was of a far more spirited fight by Iraq's troops than some analysts had predicted, slowing the invading forces' sweep from Kuwait through southern Iraq towards Baghdad.
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