The third weekend of the war in Iraq brought mixed news to the American-led coalition-- daring urban raids into the centers of Baghdad and Basra demonstrated the dominance of American and British forces while a friendly fire incident involving Kurdish fighters showed their fallibility.
The weekend's most dramatic development came Saturday, as a convoy of 60 armored vehicles rumbled through industrial zones on Baghdad's outskirts and into residential neighborhoods near the heart of the city. The intense fighting that ensued left many Iraqis dead -- conflicting official estimates varied from 1,000 to 3,000.
One American soldier was killed in the fighting as well, a tank commander riding with his head outside the turret for better visibility. An additional six soldiers were wounded, some seriously.
While the tanks did not remain inside the city, that attack was aimed in part at demonstrating the dominance of American forces to Iraqi fighters and civilians.
"This was a clear statement of the ability of the coalition forces to move into Baghdad at times and places of their choosing and to establish their presence wherever they need to in the city," Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart said at a news conference in Qatar.
Other objectives included gauging the strength and location of Iraqi defenses and securing routes into the city. By Sunday, American forces controlled all major highways in and out Baghdad, possibly setting the stage for a prolonged siege.
Emboldened by the American strike, British troops stormed into the center of Basra, a city in southern Iraq that has been surrounded since the war's first week, on Sunday. "Desert Rats," members of the British 7th Armored Brigade, drove to the heart of the city with over 30 armored vehicles before quickly pulling out. The raid was initiated after coalition forces received reports that the Baath Party power structure within the city was beginning to crumble.
Despite these successes, an accidental attack on a group of Kurdish fighters accompanied by U.S. Special Forces soldiers added levity and tragedy to the weekend's war developments. At least18 people were killed and 45 injured in the friendly fire incident carried out by American warplanes.
BBC correspondent John Simpson described the event: "The is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles are on fire, there are bodies around me, bits of bodies all around." Simpson reported that the destroyed convoy was made up of eight to 10 vehicles, two operated by U.S. Special Forces.
The brother and son of Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, were among the attack's wounded. Nonetheless, KDP officials asserted that Kurdish-American cooperation would not suffer. "It will not affect ... our resolve to work together," Hoshyar Zebari, a senior member of the KDP, told the Associated Press.
American officials denied involvement in a separate incident in which fleeing Russian diplomats came under heavy fire. The eight car convoy, which included the Russian ambassador to Iraq, was pinned down by gunfire after departing for the Syrian border from Baghdad.
It remained unclear whether the Russians were fired on by Iraqi or American forces. U.S. officials insisted that there were no coalition forces in the area of the incident and expressed optimism that U.S.-Russian relations would not be disrupted. Russia strongly opposes American action in Iraq, though Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has attempted to soften his stance in recent days by asserting that a U.S. defeat would not be in his country's interests.
Tragedy touched the American media as well as 39-year-old NBC reporter David Bloom passed away on Sunday morning. Bloom's death, of an apparent blood clot, was not combat-related. Bloom was the co-anchor of NBC's weekend "Today" and the father of three daughters.
Bloom's death follows closely on the heels of the first American media casualty of the war, David Kelly, on Thursday. Kelly died when the Humvee he was riding in took Iraqi fire and plunged into a canal. Kelly was the editor-at-large of The Atlantic Monthly, well-known for reviving the magazine and displacing its stodgy reputation. He also published conservative-minded editorials in The Washington Post and was famous for the Blue Mustang convertible he drove around the Beltway.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
