- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's
information minister said on Wednesday a U.S. attack on the city of Nassiriya
had wounded more than 500 civilians, and accused U.S. forces of using cluster
bombs against non-combatants in other areas.
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- Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf also denied that U.S. and British
forces were in full control of the southern port of Umm Qasr.
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- He said Iraqi soldiers were striking back at the invaders
in battles across the country.
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- "We will show you what defense means," he told
a news conference in Baghdad.
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- U.S. Marines reported fierce battles with Iraqi forces
as they punched their way across the Euphrates river in Nassiriya on Tuesday,
opening up a route north to Baghdad.
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- A Reuters correspondent traveling with the troops said
he saw at least two bodies of what appeared to be civilians in the wake
of the fighting.
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- Sahaf said reports from the southern Iraqi city indicated
local residents had paid a heavy price in the battle.
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- "They (U.S.-led forces) have destroyed 200 houses,
maybe more, maybe less. The Iraqi wounded in Nassiriya is more than 500
civilians," he said.
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- Sahaf said Iraqi forces, including tribal fighters and
ruling Baath Party militia, had engaged in a fierce battle at Nassiriya
and "surrounded more than 12 tanks and personnel carriers and killed
their crews."
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- UMM QASR STILL CONTESTED
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- Sahaf again denied that U.S. and British forces were
in control of Umm Qasr, the Gulf deepwater port which Washington and London
hope to use to bring humanitarian aid into Iraq.
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- Instead, he said Iraqi forces had lured invaders into
the port and they were now barely able to control the docks.
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- "They only have a few docks on the water. They dropped
their forces there and now they're in a trap," Sahaf said.
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- He said Iraqi forces had stopped advances by all major
U.S. troop columns and listed a series of battlefield victories, including
the destruction of an unspecified number of tanks and one U.S. warplane.
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- Sahaf said the U.S. and British air campaign was now
using cluster bombs and at least 13 people had been killed in various attacks.
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- "Now those villain politicians and their bad generals
are in a real frustration...so now they are killing civilians with cluster
bombs and bombing residential areas," Sahaf said.
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- "We will expel them from this country, dead or alive,
and they won't have anything."
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