U.S. Army forces from the Third Division made a daylight raid into the center of Baghdad April 5, according to a U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman.

Major General Victor "Gene" Renuart, CENTCOM director of operations, told media at CENTCOM headquarters outside Doha, Qatar, that two task forces of the Third Infantry Division started from south of Baghdad, conducted a raid north to the Tigris River in Baghdad, and then continued west toward the airport which is a few miles outside the city. The task forces were composed of M-1/A-1 Abrams tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Renuart said.

"The fight through there was characterized by a number of irregular forces mixed with Republican Guard or Special Republican Guard infantry fighting positions, nests of irregular forces and the technical [non-military] vehicles ... and air-to-air artillery weapons that were used in a direct-fire mode against our forces," Renuart said.

Asked what the purpose of the strike into Baghdad was, Renuart answered, "It was, I think, a clear statement of the ability of coalition forces to move into Baghdad at times and places of our choosing and to establish their presence really wherever they need to in the city. And those kinds of operations, I believe, will continue."

Other topics discussed in the briefing included:

-- The logistics transmission line from Kuwait to Baghdad is 350 miles long. About 2,500 vehicles transport needed supplies daily. So far 65 million gallons of gasoline have been transported into the region. Air operations consume about 2.5 million gallons of fuel a day. About 2 million tons of spare parts and support equipment are moved around the battlefield daily, Renuart said, and the combat troops eat about one-third of a million meals ready-to-eat [MREs] daily.

-- Renuart said the World Food Program delivered 1,000 metric tons of wheat April 4. Its warehouse in Basra has stockpiled cooking oil, flour, coffee and other items that are packaged for distribution. Other humanitarian groups have distributed kerosene for heating on cool nights.

-- Renuart gave further details of the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch from a hospital in An Nasiriyah that was also being used as a military command post. Nine of the 11 bodies recovered outside the hospital have been identified -- eight were from the same unit as Lynch.

-- The Baghdad airport is secured "to a fairly good degree," Renuart said. One runway will be usable quickly, and though there have been attacks against U.S. forces there, the attacks have had no success, he said.

-- Republican Guard units encountered going into Baghdad fought hard in many cases, Renuart said, but were isolated and not well organized, which he attributed to a combined-arms effort [air strikes, artillery barrages and special operations forces] before ground forces engaged them in combat.

-- Renuart could not say how many Republican Guard forces remain in and around Tikrit, because a number of their units were "sort of thrown into the fight, literally" outside of Baghdad.

-- Whether or not that was Saddam on Iraqi television April 4 does not matter, Renuart said, because the operational plan is to end the regime, and will continue.

-- Iraqi National Television is apparently broadcasting through the purchase of commercial satellite time. The coalition would like that to cease, Renuart said. The coalition would also like to have local leaders in the liberated communities broadcast on Iraqi Channel 3, which coalition forces can do.

-- The coalition is not responsible for the loss of electric power in Baghdad, Renuart said, and is looking for ways to restore it.

-- Coalition forces have about 6,500 enemy prisoners of war in custody, he said. In addition, "many units ... in some areas just left their equipment and went home. So they didn't surrender -- they just chose not to fight...."

-- Coalition forces flew about 3,000 total sorties on April 4, he said. Of those about 1,500 were in the immediate area of Iraq, and under 1,000 inside Iraq itself.

-- Before a real search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) can occur, he said, coalition forces will have to gain control of the country and control of suspected WMD sites. Coalition forces remain prepared to operate in the face of chemical or biological weapons attack.

-- There have been reports of some refugees fleeing northward and northwest from Baghdad, but not in large numbers, he said.