US Central Command denied today that there had been any pause inmilitary operations to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"I think that with respect to a pause, there is no pause on the battlefield. Just because you see a particular formation pause on the battlefield it does not mean there is a pause," Major General Victor Renuart told a news conference.
Earlier, US military sources said commanders had ordered a pause of four to six days in their northward push towards Baghdad because of supply shortages and stiff Iraqi resistance.
Unnamed officers earlier said an "operational pause," ordered yesterday, meant that advances would be put on hold while the military tried to sort out logistics problems caused by long supply lines from neighboring Kuwait.
Food rations have been cut for at least one frontline US unit and fuel use has been limited.
The US-led invasion force would continue to attack Iraqi forces to the north with heavy air strikes during the pause, battering them before any attack on Baghdad, they said. The officers declined to be named.
"We have almost out-run our logistics lines," one officer said at a US unit at the northernmost stretch of the advance in central Iraq. Some units have advanced to within 80 km of Baghdad, but are almost 500 km from Kuwait.
Agencies