- AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (Reuters)
- U.S. forces have killed about 2,000 Iraqi fighters in Baghdad since American
troops attacked the city's outskirts, U.S. officials said on Sunday.
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- "U.S. military estimates Iraqi military casualties
at around 2,000 since we started attacking the outskirts of Baghdad,"
Maj. Rumy Nielson-Green said at U.S. war headquarters in Qatar.
-
- Capt. Frank Thorp, another spokesman, said the count
referred to Iraqi soldiers killed during a foray through the city by U.S.
tanks and armored vehicles on Saturday.
-
- "We know it was more than 2,000 casualties,"
Thorp said. "We have no reports of civilian casualties when the armored
combat formation went through the heart of Baghdad."
-
- U.S. forces say they seized Baghdad's international airport
on Friday and have been pummeling the capital with heavy artillery, missiles
and bombs. Iraq says it has recaptured the airport.
-
- Thorp said U.S. forces continued to operate "in
the vicinity" of Baghdad and at the airport but they were no longer
"at the heart of Baghdad."
-
- "Coalition forces continue to operate in the vicinity
of Baghdad. As opportunities arise to move into the city if we decide to
take them we sure will," Thorp told Reuters.
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