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| US, Iraq locked in verbal exchange over Baghdad amid fierce fighting on ground |
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As the US-led military operation against Iraq enters day 18, control of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad seems to be the linchpin of the ongoing Iraq war.
US military officials announced that their troops penetrated the city of Baghdad early Saturday for the first time, but this was strongly denied by Iraqi officials who claimed Iraqi forces had retaken the Saddam International Airport, killing 300 US troops.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahaf said in an interview with Qatar's Al Jazeera television that the footage aired by CNN was not shot from any district in Baghdad.
He said that footage was taken from a district called "Abu Ghurrib," which is just located outside the fences of Saddam International Airport.
"Today, the tide has turned," said the Iraqi Minister, "We are destroying them."
"We killed the Americans and drove them out of the airport," he said, adding that these pictures were taken from an area 30 to 40 km away from Baghdad.
Baghdad is safe with security prevailing in the city, according to Sahaf, who also pledged to take journalists to go around Baghdad to see with their own eyes what is actually happening.
But he admitted that the eye-catching Saddam International Airport remained unsafe to visit although Iraqi forces have regained control of it.
The state-run Iraqi TV also broadcast a statement, saying the Iraqi forces inflicted heavy losses on the US-led coalition troops on Saturday.
It said the Iraqi forces destroyed eight tanks, 11 armored personnel carriers and shot down one fighter jet and one helicopter.
Meanwhile, the US-led coalition warplanes launched a new round of bombardment on targets in central Baghdad early Sunday, huge explosions and artillery fire were heard from the western outskirts of Baghdad.
According to US military officials, coalition warplanes had started a 24-hour patrol over Baghdad to protect US ground troops as they moved through the streets of the Iraqi capital.
They said if Republican Guard divisions and other Iraqi military units chose to fight, warplanes were ready to launch a range of precision bombs and rockets day and night in an aerial form of house-to-house combat.
"Today, we began to work a concept of operations for urban CAS (combat air support)," he said.
While fighting fiercely in the battle fields, the two sides also had an exchange in a verbal clash over the situation in Baghdad. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein appeared on TV late Saturday night with his two sons and senior military officers, showing he was still in control of the country's capital city.
As the major target of the current Iraq war, a smiling Saddam, wearing military fatigues, sat in a room with his two sons Qusay and Uday near him, a move apparently to beef up morale of the Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi TV did not say when or where the meeting took place.
On Friday, Iraqi TV also showed footage of Saddam visiting some residential quarters, hit by US bombs and missiles, in the capital.
The fresh appearances of Saddam on TV were also seen as morale boosters to the Iraqi people when the US forces were closing in on Baghdad in a bid to seize it.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush on Saturday said in Washington that days of both Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his loyalists were numbered.
"Village by village, city by city, liberation is coming," Bush said in his weekly radio address. He vowed that US-led coalition forces would fight on until Saddam and his forces were defeated in Baghdad and the "whole country."
Bush was expected to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair next week in Northern Ireland for discussions on a post-war Iraq.
According to latest reports, the Iraqi government imposed a travel ban out of Baghdad from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. beginning from Sunday evening, as the US-British forces are reportedly planning to enter the capital again.
As the US-British forces are closing in on the capital, Local TV reported the government decision, saying that "there will be a ban on the movement of vehicles and people from and into the capital of Baghdad between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. until further notice."
Just before the announcement, loud artillery fire was heard from the western outskirts of the city in a new wave of bombardment, which resumed after a few hours of respite.
Hundreds of civilians fled Baghdad on Saturday, some of them were heading north away from the advancing coalition forces.
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