US, British Forces Moved Halfway to Baghdad

Pentagon: US and British forces were "making considerable progress" as they have moved 150 miles (240 kilometers) into Iraq from Kuwait, halfway to Baghdad, the Pentagon said Saturday.

"The oil fields in the south are being saved to benefit the Iraqi people. Coalition forces have the key port of Umm Qasr and are making good progress in Basra," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters at a news conference.

"It is only a matter of time before the Iraqi regime is destroyed and its threat to region and the world is ended," she said. "The Iraqi forces, including some leadership, are surrendering and defecting in some numbers."

US warplanes flew more than 1,000 sorties against several hundred targets across Iraq in the past 24 hours and more than 400Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from US and British ships and submarines, said Major Gen. Stanley McChrystal of the US JointChiefs of Staff.

"The goal of the air campaign is to neutralize Iraqi leadership,suppress missile threats to our forces and Iraq's neighbors," he said at the news conference.

It said the soldiers, from the first brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, were on a reconnaissance mission when their vehicles were hit by rocket-propelled grenades.

The attack was followed by a "coordinated mortar attack," Sky quoted its correspondent Colin Brazier as saying. The exact location of the incident was not given.

The deaths brought to some 24 casualties - British and U.S. - so far from the Anglo-American campaign to invade and occupy Iraq, on its third day.

Earlier, two helicopters from Britain's Royal Navy collided in mid-air today over international waters in the Gulf and seven crewmen on board are confirmed dead, a British military spokesman said.

The incident occurred at around 4:30 am local time (0130 GMT) and involved two Royal Navy Sea King Airborne Early Warning helicopters, Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted the spokesman as saying.

All seven crewmen aboard the two British helicopters are dead, a British military spokesman said here. This accident comes only a day after eight British Royal Marines and four U.S. airmen were killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait. The U.S. Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter came down during deployment operations to the Fao peninsula in southern Iraq.

A Jordanian truck driver named Ahmed Youssef was killed in the attack in the area of Badiea Al-Ambaar.

Iraqi military claims that their radar shows the missile originated
From Jordan, although Jordanian authorities claimed that no attacks would be launched from there.

A Jordanian bus driver was harassed and verbally abused by Iraqi soldiers after the incident and was told: “You’re next. Your time will come.” According to eyewitness reports, another missile hit a communication. Tower five kilometers outside the Jordanian-Iraqi border in an area called Trabil.