- (AFP) -- The Iraqi regime was still standing after a
fresh onslaught from the skies, sending out its ministers to tell the world
that President Saddam Hussein would emerge victorious against the United
States and Britain.
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- As the city picked up the pieces Saturday after the strongest
bombing of the three-day campaign, an Iraq army spokesman denied Pentagon
reports that its entire 51st mechanized division had surrendered to US-led
coalition forces in southern Iraq.
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- "The brave 51st division, with its valiant commander,
officers and soldiers are fighting ... with utmost courage," he said
on state television.
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- The division was still "inflicting material damage
on enemy tanks and casualties among the mercenaries in their area of operation".
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- About 8,000 to 10,000 troops are believed to be in an
Iraqi division.
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- Baghdad on Saturday was picking itself up after the first
night of the long-feared "shock and awe" phase of the US military
campaign and awaiting the next round of fury from the skies.
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- Some 320 cruise missiles pounded the city overnight,
setting off giant explosions that lit up the sky and rocked the city's
foundations.
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- The force of the explosions could be felt more than one
kilometer (about one mile) from the point of impact. Acrid black smoke
rose up in clouds above the city before dissipating in the morning breeze.
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- The US and British air assault targeted a number of buildings
at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's main Republican Palace compound on
the Tigris river, the symbolic center of his quarter-century grip on power,
as well as a former royal palace which today houses intelligence services.
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- Several missiles also blasted through a building opposite
the foreign ministry which serves as a base for security services.
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- Air Force staff and the elite Republican Guard were reportedly
also hit and according to witnesses, military installation at the Al Taji
base 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Baghdad were bombed.
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- US television network ABC quoted CIA sources as saying
that deputy Iraqi leader Ezzat Ibrahim, Vice President Taha Yassine Ramadan
and General Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, were killed
in the opening salvo early Thursday.
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- There was no independent confirmation of the report,
and an Iran-based Shiite opposition group said Majid, known as "Chemical
Ali", had taken refuge in a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
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- Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf said
Friday night's bombing blitz on Baghdad had wounded 207 civilians, most
of them women and children.
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- He said the casualties, being treated in five different
hospitals around the capital, were "hit in their homes".
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- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) could
only say Saturday it had reports of "many wounded" in Baghdad,
as its teams fanned out to check on hospitals in the Iraqi capital following
the latest round of air raids.
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- Sahhaf granted a late-night tour of the bombed sites
to a small group of reporters and vented his anger at US leaders, including
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld whom he called a "criminal dog".
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- "We will destroy you," he said. "We will
chop off the head of those who carry out aggression against Iraq."
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- Sahhaf assured that the Iraqi army had inflicted "heavy
losses" on US and British forces, fending offer their incursions from
the south.
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- "Our forces are still in place" at the strategic
southern port of Umm Qasr, the minister said.
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- An AFP correspondent on the scene said US Marines were
battling Iraqi resistance on the outskirts of the town.
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- Lieutenant Colonel Steve Holmes of the US Marines said
Iraqi commandos were still putting up significant resistance while US Cobra
helicopters were engaged in combat, firing missiles while both sides were
heard launching mortar rounds.
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- In Baghdad, militiamen of the ruling Baath party patrolled
intersections flanked by helmeted police.
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