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Urban combat, chemical weapons, civilian casualties, guerrilla warfare, humanitarian crises in the south, instability in the north — whatever the unknowns that lurked ahead, the war machine was undeterred, as evidenced by the various units rolling across the desert, preparing to deliver the ultimate blow to the Iraqi regime. While each day that the war drags on gives the Iraqis a chance to regroup, it also grants allied forces the opportunity to reload. As the 3rd Infantry Division made its way past Nasiriyah, a long column of the 101st Airborne Division barreled out of Kuwait into the desert on a parallel track, crossing the marshes and heading toward Baghdad. Scores of Harriers and A-10 Warthogs took off from bases in Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and from aircraft carriers in the gulf, providing support to the Marines and British ground forces laying siege to Basra. Midday Sunday, the Marine column ran into stiff resistance outside Nasiriyah in what appeared to be a coming together of Iraqi forces that had been fighting in sporadic skirmishes with the 3rd Infantry over the previous 36 hours. Nasiriyah remained unoccupied by U.S. forces. In the capital, Saddam's Interior Minister, Mohammed Diab al-Ahmed, appeared before journalists, brandishing a Kalashnikov. "It is Bush who is the lone fighter," al-Ahmed said. "It is we who will achieve a great victory, and we are not dreaming." Maybe not. But the regime's worst nightmare is about to begin.
— Reported by Mark Thompson, Tim Burger, James Carney, John F. Dickerson and Douglas Waller/Washington; Brian Bennett/with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing; Sally B. Donnelly/Doha; Meenakshi Ganguly/on the U.S.S. Constellation; Terry McCarthy/Safwan; and Alex Perry/Nasiriyah