M A I N   N E W S

Baghdad blitz continues; Iraq downs 2 US copters

Iraqis celebrate on an Apache helicopter in Hindiya district, 120 km south-west of Baghdad, on Monday. Iraq said that Iraqi farmers had shot down two US helicopters south of Baghdad and vowed to show the pilots on television, just as it did with other captured and killed soldiers on Sunday. — Reuters photo

Dubai, March 24
As Baghdad was rocked by fresh bombings amidst reports of coalition forces facing stiff resistance by Iraqi troops at several places, a defiant President Saddam Hussein today asked the “brave and heroic Iraqi people” to “strike evil” pledging that “victory will be ours”.

With the US-led bombing campaign entering the fifth day, Saddam Hussein said “victory will be ours soon.... Iraqis will strike the necks as God has commanded you.”

“Strike them and strike evil so that evil will be defeated,” Saddam, dressed in a military uniform, said on Iraqi TV.

Baghdad was rattled with fresh bombings early today with huge clouds of smoke rising over the sky.

The northern city of Mosul was also rocked by three fresh coalition air raids today, Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera reported.

US Army General Tommy Franks, commander of the coalition forces, briefs reporters in the media centre at Central Command's forward headquaters, Camp As Sayliyah, outside Doha, Qatar, on Monday. Franks described the resistance put up by Iraqi troops as "sporadic", echoing British Defence Minister Geoff Hoon who dismissed it as "patchy", and said his forces had made rapid — in some cases dramatic — progress. — Reuters

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf claimed that Iraq shot down two Apache helicopters.

“A small number of peasants shot down two Apaches,” he said. “Perhaps we will show pictures of the (two) pilots.”

The US military confirmed that one helicopter is down but has not commented on the other.

Al-Sahhaf also said Iraqi troops had foiled attempted British and US landings in key towns both southwest and north of Baghdad.

“Yesterday, they tried to land mercenaries near Najaf and Karbala, but they were encircled and fled,” Sahhaf said, adding “they tried the same thing, in the north, near Kirkuk, but were pursued and fled.”

However, coalition forces were continuing their push towards the Iraqi capital despite the Central Command saying that 12 US soldiers were missing in an ambush on an army supply convoy at An Nasiriyah.

Two British soldiers were also missing in the South, according to the UK Foreign Ministry.

In northern Iraq, coalition warplanes bombed a military barracks, forcing the frightened residents to flee.

In another incident, a US missile hit a Syrian passenger bus near the Iraqi border, killing five and injuring 10, Syria’s official news agency reported.

BAGHDAD: According to an AFP report five persons including a woman, were killed when a missile fired by allied warplanes hit houses in a densely populated area of Baghdad, residents said.

The Iraqi Information Minister, however, admitted that 62 Iraqis had been killed by US-led forces in the previous 24 hours and more than 400 had been wounded. PTI, AFP