- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hundreds
of U.S. troops were poised on Friday to reinforce the battle for Baghdad
airport after Iraqi television showed what it said was President Saddam
Hussein being mobbed and cheered in the streets of the city.
-
- The United States said the airport, just 12 miles from
the city center, was under American military control but Iraq said its
forces had destroyed 11 U.S. tanks and eight armored personnel carriers
and the fight was not over.
-
- U.S. commanders told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker
that soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division and the 94th battalion,
an engineering unit, would reinforce the 3rd Infantry Division at the airport
in the coming hours.
-
- Hundreds of U.S. troops would add to an estimated 1,500
now at the airport, a key objective for U.S. forces, who could use it as
a forward base in any battle for this sprawling ancient city of five million
people.
-
- Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said an
"isolated island" of U.S. forces was at the gates of the capital.
"We will commit a non-conventional act on them, not necessarily military,"
he told a news conference.
-
- Asked if Iraq would use weapons of mass destruction --
which it denies possessing -- Sahaf said: "No, not at all. But we
will conduct a kind of martyrdom (suicide) operations."
-
- U.S. military sources said at least one American was
killed in fighting for the airport and four were wounded.
-
- The capital is now in range of rockets and artillery
of U.S. forces who drove over 500 km (300 miles) from Kuwait.
-
- A large explosion rocked a presidential complex in central
Baghdad used by Saddam's son Qusay on Friday evening, witnesses said. Reuters
correspondent Samia Nakhoul said anti-aircraft fire and tracers lit up
the night sky just before the blast.
-
- "The barrage of anti-aircraft and artillery fire
is continuing as I speak. It is very loud," she said.
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- MARINES CLOSE IN ON BAGHDAD
-
- The U.S. military said it was confident that it had breached
the defensive ring around Baghdad, but Iraqi Special Republican Guards
were still operating in the area.
-
- Reuters correspondent Matthew Green said a huge armored
column of U.S. Marines was closing in on Baghdad, the eastern prong of
a thrust toward the city.
-
- As Baghdad went into the evening of day 16 of the war,
heavy artillery rumbled from southwestern Baghdad, the direction of the
airport.
-
- "The thud of artillery fire is reverberating across
the capital, from the southwest. It just started," a Reuters correspondent
said.
-
- Reuters correspondents in Baghdad said residents were
tense and fearful, gripped by a sense of impending crisis. Many stayed
indoors, while armed militiamen guarded the streets.
-
- The city lost power on Thursday night for the first time
in the war although some supplies came back on Friday. The United States
denied targeting the electricity network.
-
- The appearance of what Iraqi television said was Saddam
provoked analysis on U.S. television networks about whether the footage
proved Saddam was alive after a U.S. air raid at the start of the war aimed
at killing him and his two sons. There was speculation it might have been
a body double.
-
- In the footage, an excited crowd, mainly men, chanted:
-
- "Our soul and blood we will sacrifice for you, Saddam."
Some people kissed his hand, a few waved rifles in the air.
-
- In some of the television footage, smoke could be seen,
believed to be from trenches filled with oil and set ablaze by Iraqis to
try to obscure targets from attacking aircraft. It was impossible to confirm
the exact date of the video.
-
- Earlier, Iraqi television showed what it said was the
president, who is known to have doubles and who was last thought to have
been seen in public some two years ago, urging resistance against the invaders.
He made a reference to the shooting down of a U.S. Apache helicopter on
March 24.
-
- There was no mention of any non-conventional attack,
but he said: "Hit them with force, resist them, oh people of Baghdad
whenever they advance upon your city and remain true to your principles,
your faith and your honor."
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