Some allied claims fall short in Iraq war

WASHINGTON -- The allies have claimed the surrender of an Iraqi division that didn't, the firing of an Iraqi Scud missile that never flew and military advances sometimes less dramatic than described.

Whether because of the chaos of the battlefield or an overeagerness to take a propaganda advantage, U.S. officials and their British allies have made assertions that haven't held up.

To be sure, so have the Iraqis.

Standing on the roof of Baghdad's Palestine Hotel on Monday, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf denied the undeniable. "There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad at all," he said.

Such claims might not be surprising from a dictatorship under siege and trying everything to keep its soldiers from despair. In contrast, the allies have tempered their confident statements with a daily dose of caution that more tough fighting lies ahead.

Even so, the coalition speaks with many voices -- from Washington, London, Central Command in Qatar, the front lines. Not all have resisted the temptation to cast developments in a way that best serves the campaign.

A look at some of the questionable claims along the way:

Heart of Baghdad

On Saturday, Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, made the riveting announcement that "American armored combat formations have moved through the heart of Baghdad, defeating the Iraqi troops we have encountered."

The 25-mile raid was primarily through the sprawling city's southwestern industrial suburbs, although one route took a swing closer in to the core. U.S. officials dropped their initial characterization of pushing into the city's heart.

At first, officials said the Americans went inside to stay. "They're not coming out," Thorp said. Later, the mission was described as only a probe.

A choke hold

On Saturday, Air Force Capt. Dani Burrows, speaking for Central Command, said U.S. forces were consolidating their encirclement of Baghdad. "Pretty much what you've got here is a choke hold around Baghdad," Burrows said.

On Sunday, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff described the situation in somewhat different terms. "Baghdad, as you know, is about 15 miles or more east to west and about 15 miles north to south," Marine Gen. Peter Pace said. "So to say that you have an impenetrable cordon around the city would be a misstatement."

Even so, he said U.S. troops controlled all major roads into the city.

A vanished division

Early in the war, Pentagon officials said Iraq's entire 51st Infantry Division, 8,000 soldiers strong, had surrendered in southern Iraq, a stunning development that turned out to be untrue.

"The unit did not surrender en masse," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of joint operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a day later. Instead, Iraqi soldiers left the battlefield -- some giving up the fight, others perhaps to fight again.

Officials said one or more commanders of the division had surrendered; published reports later suggested a commander was in fact a junior officer posing as a senior one.

Scud claim

On March 20, U.S., British and Kuwaiti officials said one or more Iraqi missiles fired into Kuwait was a Scud. Iraq was prohibited from possessing Scuds under U.N. weapons sanctions and denies it has any.

U.S. Army officials initially said two of the missiles were Scuds. If true, Iraq would have been caught in a lie and President Bush's statements that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction would have been vividly illustrated.

But McChrystal said later that Iraq fired no Scuds.

Battle of Basra

A two-week standoff between Saddam Hussein loyalists inside Iraq's second-largest city and British troops outside gave rise to murky reports of civilian uprisings against Saddam's forces, British penetrations and battles on the outskirts. British forces now have moved solidly into the city.

On March 30, British officials said their forces had captured an Iraqi general south of Basra. Later, they said they were wrong.