BAGHDAD, 26 March 2003 — Iraqi militia killed eight British or US soldiers, downed three helicopters and destroyed more than 30 military vehicles in fierce fighting south and southwest of Nassiriyah, Information Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahhaf said yesterday. He also told a press conference that 16 civilians had been killed and another 95 wounded in allied bombing of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities since Monday night.
US commanders conceded yesterday that US forces suffered new casualties in fighting in Nassiriyah, but they gave no figures.
Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart, director of operations for the US Central Command, said the next of kin had not been notified of the casualties from the battle at the key Euphrates River passageway.
“We have had some casualties and we will confirm them as soon as that (notification) is complete,” he told a briefing.
But Renuart added that US-led forces had inflicted more casualties on the Iraqis.
The province of Muthanna, southwest of Nassiriyah, saw heavy fighting overnight which lasted until 10:40 a.m. “Baath forces destroyed 30 military vehicles and downed three helicopters,” Sahhaf said.
In the Souk Al-Chouyoukh region, south of Nasiriyah, the ruling Baath party’s militia, one of them a woman, killed eight coalition troops and destroyed three vehicles, forcing the attackers to retreat, he added.
Iraqi military spokesman Hazem Al-Rawi said an Iraqi carried out a suicide attack in the southern region of Fao overnight and destroyed a tank of the US-British alliance.
“The first suicide attack was carried out last night,” he told a separate press conference in Baghdad. An Iraqi civilian “penetrated behind enemy lines and destroyed a tank”, the spokesman said. There was no immediate confirmation of the report.
In the capital, the latest bombings killed one person and wounded another four, Sahhaf said.
In Najaf, in the center of the country, six civilians were killed and another 29 wounded. Eight people were killed and another 50 wounded in Anbar, in the west.
One person was killed and nine hurt in the northern province of Niniveh, and three injured in the southern province of Misan.
In other comments, Sahhaf dismissed as “fabricated lies” US charges that Baghdad was receiving technical advice from Russian experts on how to jam British and US military signals. “We have no Russian experts in Iraq,” Sahhaf said. “We have not asked any country for assistance of any kind.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin also denied the US charges in a telephone conversation with his US counterpart, George W. Bush, the Kremlin said earlier yesterday.
The White House said Monday it had “credible evidence” that Russian companies sold Iraq night-vision goggles, anti-tank weapons, and technology to jam satellite signals that US-led forces use to guide bombs and military aircraft.
For his part, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan lashed out at Arab foreign ministers, saying their call for an “immediate and unconditional withdrawal” of US-led troops attacking Iraq did not go far enough.
“Condemnation is insufficient in the face of an attack which targeted the whole Arab nation,” Ramadan said at another press conference. “Why do the Arabs not halt oil deliveries to the aggressor nations?”
At a meeting in Cairo Monday, Arab ministers, including Iraq’s Naji Sabri, condemned the US-led attack on Iraq and called for it to stop.
