Iraq said last night that it might take "non-conventional" action last night night against US-led forces who have seized Baghdad airport.
"We will commit a non-conventional act on them, not necessarily military," Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told a news conference. "We will do something that will be a great example for these mercenaries."
PHOTO: REUTERS
It was not clear what he meant by "non-conventional". US-led forces have been on the alert for possible Iraqi use of biological or chemical weapons, which Baghdad denies it possesses.
Sahaf also said that US forces were on an "isolated island" at the Baghdad airport. "It is difficult for the US forces that are surrounded in Saddam airport to come out alive, he said.
Earlier in the day, terrified civilians fled into Baghdad after US forces battled their way into the nearby international airport, their biggest prize yet in a war to oust a defiant Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi leader, in a message read by a minister on television, vowed to defend the capital and urged his people to turn the land beneath the invaders' feet to fire.
Saddam International Airport was a key objective for US forces, who can use it as a forward base in any battle for this sprawling city of five million people.
"We control the airport. It's a big area with a lot of buildings that need to be cleared, but it's ours," Colonel John Peabody, commander of the Engineer Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, said.
Peabody said the runway was in good condition.
Civilians trying to escape the fighting around the airport, just 20km southwest of the city center, fled into Baghdad in vehicles piled high with blankets and possessions.
"It was a night of hell," said one trembling woman. "We thought they had entered Baghdad, there were planes all night dropping bombs and there was shelling all night."
In central areas, many residents stayed indoors, leaving the streets largely to knots of armed militiamen.
"The enemy is trying to enter Baghdad," Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said, quoting a statement he said was from Saddam. "Fight them, brothers, hit them day and night and let the land of Muslims be a scorching fire for their feet."
The capital is now in range of the rockets and artillery of US forces who have driven over 500km from Kuwait since starting the war on March 20.
A US spokesman said about 2,500 Republican Guards had surrendered to US forces overnight and US Marines are closing in on Baghdad from the southeast.
"Just last night there was a [military field] report of about 2,500 soldiers of the Baghdad division surrendering, stripping off their uniforms," Captain Frank Thorp said.
Thorp said Marines advancing from Kut, about 170km southeast of Baghdad, were now close to the capital.
It was unclear when US forces intended to move into the city, but US Marine Captain Matt Watt said the plan was to encircle the capital and gradually reduce its defenses.
"We've got them on their heels, we're going to continue to exploit our successes," he said. "We're going to surround Baghdad and start taking chunks out of where the enemy are."
The US military said 320 Iraqi soldiers had been killed in fighting for the airport. Dozens of Iraqi troop carriers, trucks and anti-aircraft guns had been captured or destroyed.
US troops later fought off an Iraqi counterattack, with Bradley fighting vehicles firing heavy machineguns and TOW missiles to halt four Soviet-era T-72 tanks, a T-62 and other vehicles. Tanks smouldered and several bodies lay on the ground.
Western military analysts said they were puzzled by the comparatively light resistance at the airport.
Philip Mitchell, army analyst at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies said Republican Guards might have melted into the city, perhaps as part of Iraqi plans to suck US and British forces into bloody street fighting.
But those forces were aware of that tactic and would not be drawn in. "So it's perhaps self-defeating," Mitchell said.
For the first time since the conflict began, city power went off late on Thursday, plunging Baghdad into darkness. US officials denied they targeted power supplies.
Meanwhile, a US officer said last night that troops south of Baghdad found a ``suspicious site'' with thousands of boxes of white powder, chemical warfare documents and nerve agent antidote. A senior official familiar with initial testing said later the white powder was believed to be explosives.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique