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US forces secure Baghdad airport, take 2,500 POWs

US Army combat engineers stand guard at a floatable bridge which the engineers built beside an existing two-lane bridge over the Euphrates River outside Baghdad as the US forces pushed towards the city and seized control of the international airport. PHOTO: REUTERS

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."

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.
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