Iraq Expects Encirclement of Baghdad, Vows to Defend

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 28, 2003

Iraq Expects Encirclement of Baghdad, Vows to Defend

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Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed said on Thursday he expected that the US-led coalition forces would surround Baghdad within five to 10 days, but the minister vowed that the capital will be "impregnable."

Speaking at a press conference, the defense minister acknowledged that the first US units are just 140 kilometers from the city limits.

"It will be no surprise that in five to ten days they will be able to encircle all our positions in Baghdad... They have the capability to do so," he said.

Then the coalition forces would face fierce street battles, he added.

"Baghdad will be impregnable. We will fight to the end and everywhere. History will record how well Iraqis performed in defense of their capital," Ahmed said.

Earlier, the Iraqi leadership issued a statement following a meeting chaired by President Saddam Hussein on Thursday, urging the Iraqi people and armed forces to divide the US-led coalition forces and destroy them completely.

The meeting discussed preparations taken by Iraq to confront the "savage and barbarian attacks by the enemy" and "the necessary measures" taken to destroy them, the brief statement said.

The statement called on the Iraqi people and armed forces to "exploit the enemy's spread-out in different parts of Iraq, divide the enemy troops into pieces and attack the front and rear so as to destroy them completely."

The statement also called on the Iraqi armed forces and people to "inflict maximum material and human damage among enemy ranks."

President Saddam, the major target of the US-led military campaign, chaired the meeting as the war entered the eighth day.

The state television said that the meeting was attended by Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Defense Minister Hashim Ahmed and a number of other ministers.

The meeting was held while the coalition forces launched several rounds of air attacks on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Thursday.

Earlier on Thursday, Iraqi Health Minister Umid Medhat Mubarak said that 350 civilians have been killed and some 4,000 others injured since the US-led war on Iraq started last Thursday.

He said most of the victims were children, women and the elderly.

The Iraqi military claimed that nine US and British soldiers were killed and a US Apache helicopter as well as an unmanned drone were shot down in southern Iraq on Thursday.

A statement issued by the general commander of the Iraqi forcesadded that 10 tanks and 17 armored personnel carriers of the US-led coalition were destroyed by the Iraqi forces during the operation in southern Iraq.

Meanwhile, bombardment of Baghdad continued on the eighth day of the war. A Xinhua correspondent has witnessed the building of Iraqi communications in northeast of Baghdad completely destroyed by a US missile during the day.

"This has cut off the telephone communications in a number of areas in Baghdad," the correspondent said.

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