Iraq Denies Reports of Coalition Entering Baghdad

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, April 05, 2003

Iraq Denies Reports of Coalition Entering Baghdad

Iraq's Information Minister says Baghdad is firmly under Iraqi control and denied US reports that American troops had reached the centre of the capital.

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Iraq's Information Minister says Baghdad is firmly under Iraqi control and denied US reports that American troops had reached the centre of the capital.

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf also claimed that Iraqi troops had defeated US forces at Baghdad airport overnight. US military sources, however, said they were in control.

The airport is believed to be a key objective for US forces, who can use it as a forward operating base in any battle for Baghdad.

Earlier in the day, US Central Command claimed that a "significant number" of US troops were entering Baghdad and are not just on a brief patrol, but declined to put a number on the troops entering the Iraqi capital.

However, a BBC correspondent reporting from the centre of Baghdad says he has not seen any US troops there yet.

Earlier in the day, witnesses said Iraqi forces were locked in fierce fighting with advancing US forces just some 10 kilometres from the centre of Baghdad.

And a US commander said a contingent of US troops supported by tanks and armoured vehicles had gone into Baghdad on a reconnaissance mission.

US forces also reportedly seized the headquarters of the Medina Division of the Republican Guards in the town of Suwayrah, near Baghdad.

With artillery thundering overhead, Marines pushed through Iraqi fire to within a few kilometres of Baghdad's southeast border early Saturday.

In Baghdad, a string of heavy blasts rocked the capital city. A telecommunication centre was among targets hit in the air strikes.

Also on Saturday, US aircraft and ground troops attacked the central Iraqi city of Karbala in a move to protect the backs of US forces moving into Baghdad.

Troops from the "Screaming Eagles" 101st Airborne Division landed in helicopters on the western edge of town and moved in alongside a tank battalion with Apache attack helicopters overhead.

Air Force officers said fighter planes had hit a Republican Guard facility, the city headquarters of the ruling Baath Party, and an ammunitions depot with 2,000 pound bombs shortly before midday.

Also in central Iraq, two US Marines were confirmed as dead after a Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed early Saturday.

Central Command says the crash of the AH-1W gunship was not the result of hostile fire, and the cause is under investigation.

Earlier the Pentagon had listed 67 dead and 16 missing since the war began. Britain says it has suffered 27 dead.

Iraq has not given figures for military deaths, but Foreign Minister Naji Sabri says that more than 1,200 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the conflict.

In another development, a US official says the United States plans to unveil the first stages of a civilian administration for post-war Iraq within days.

The official, who declined to be named, said the announcement might be made in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are expected to meet in Northern Ireland next week to discuss the ongoing war in Iraq.

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US Says Its Troops Operating in Center of Baghdad

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