[This story was updated on 03.23.03 at 6:45 p.m. ET.]
The most intense day of combat yet in Iraq ended with U.S.-led forces claiming a costly victory in the city of An Nasiriyah and several U.S. soldiers killed, injured or captured.
A 10-hour battle at An Nasiriyah saw "the sharpest engagement of the war so far" according to Army Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. (Click for a map of the battlefield.) CNN reports that as many as 10 Marines were killed in the battle.
An additional 12 U.S. soldiers are missing in action after their supply convoy was attacked near An Nasiriyah. Some of them have been captured by Iraqi forces and questioned on Iraqi television. The identities of the soldiers and additional details of their capture are being withheld by officials while their families are being notified.
Arab satellite TV channel Al Jazeera broadcast Iraqi TV footage of one female and four male captured U.S. soldiers. According to CNN, the disturbing footage features wounded soldiers being questioned while the bodies of four of their colleagues are seen lying in the background. Some of the dead appear to have been shot in the forehead, according to CNN.
The Pentagon confirmed that the footage was genuine while insisting that broadcasting it was a violation of the Geneva Convention, the set of international laws concerning the treatment of the victims of war.
"It is illegal for POWs to be shown and pictured and humiliated," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told CNN. "That is something the United States does not do." According to Rumsfeld, U.S. forces are holding close to 2,000 Iraqi POWs.
Iraqi authorities issued a statement declaring that their handling of captured U.S. soldiers will follow the laws outlined by the Geneva Convention.
As Iraqis increased the intensity of their fighting, they employed unconventional tactics, according to Abizaid. Describing what he called "ruses perpetrated by the enemy," Abizaid said Iraqi troops had lured U.S. soldiers into an ambush by first waving a white flag of surrender. He said that other Iraqi troops had dressed as civilians and seemed to welcome oncoming U.S. troops before opening fire.
The developments come as U.S.-led forces continue to roll north through the desert toward Baghdad on paths roughly parallel to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Seventy American tanks and 60 armored troop carriers from the 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade are now less than 100 miles from the Iraqi capital.
Despite the resistance, President Bush told reporters on Sunday that U.S. officials are "pleased with the progress we are making."
Meanwhile, further details emerged about a grenade attack late Saturday that killed one soldier in the Army's 101st Airborne Division and injured as many as 16 others at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. Sgt. Asan Akbar, a member of the division, is being questioned about his role in the incident and is suspected of having staged the attack himself or with the help of another solider. An Army spokesperson told CBS News that the motive "most likely was resentment."
Other key developments Sunday:
- CBS News reports that a U.S. Air Force helicopter crashed in Afghanistan on Sunday, killing its six-person crew. The helicopter was on a medical evacuation mission, and it is not believed that enemy fire brought it down. An investigation is under way.
- Hundreds rallied in New York’s Times Square on Sunday in a show of support for U.S. troops. Many similar but smaller rallies have been held across the country. Times Square has hosted several anti-war rallies since the launch of the U.S.-led campaign.
- Tens of thousands turned out for anti-war protests in Pakistan, Jordan, India, Australia, Mexico and Chile. The protests were the latest in a wave of global outcry denouncing U.S. military action in Iraq.
- Iraqi troops were seen on Iraqi TV firing rounds into the Euphrates River in Baghdad. The government claimed that the soldiers were targeting a coalition pilot who had been shot down over the city. U.S. and U.K. officials said that all allied aircraft and related personnel were accounted for. The "search" was eventually called off.
- British officials said a U.S. Patriot missile mistakenly shot down one of their GR4 Tornado fighter jets near the Iraq-Kuwait border, killing its two-man crew.
- The Red Cross reports that the city of Basra has been without water for two days and that the situation in growing increasingly dire for civilians there. Iraq's minister of information said 366 have been wounded and 77 have been killed in the southeastern city of Basra. There claim has not been independently confirmed.
- U.S. troops have secured the Rumailah oil field in southern Iraq. Only 10 of the field's 500 or so oil wells have been set ablaze, according to Rumsfeld.
- Protestors chanted "CNN — war is not a game" outside the channel's Atlanta headquarters Saturday. A day earlier, tens of thousands protested the war across the U.S. and the world. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 marched down Broadway in New York on Saturday to protest the conflict.
