WAR

[Theresa]

BAGHDAD (March 23) - Iraqi television showed video on Sunday of at least four bodies, said to be U.S. soldiers, and five prisoners who said they were Americans taken in a battle near the southern city of Nassiriya.

The video showed two rooms each containing what appeared to be two separate groups of four bodies in military uniform. Two of the prisoners, including a woman, appeared to be wounded. One was lying on the floor on a rug.

They were the first U.S. prisoners known to have been taken by Iraq since U.S.-led forces invaded four days ago to overthrow President Saddam Hussein. The prisoners gave their names and home towns and one provided his military identification number.

In Washington, U.S. defense officials said a small number of U.S. troops had apparently been captured and others killed by the Iraqi military, and that they were notifying families based on information from the videotape.

The bodies and prisoners were shown on Iraqi television, relayed by the Arabic network Al-Jazeera, which said the dead and wounded had been taken during a battle at the town of Souq al-Shuyukh, southeast of the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya where U.S. forces have encountered stiff resistance.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the video apparently showing American prisoners of war was a violation of the Geneva Convention. The International Committee of the Red Cross agreed the footage violated the convention.

The dead bodies were strewn on the floor in pools of blood. In the first room, at least two had wounds to the head and another had a groin wound. In the second room, a smiling Iraqi uncovered the bodies, several of which had blackened faces.

The first prisoner shown gave his name as Miller and said he was from Kansas.

Asked why he had come to Iraq he replied: ''Because I was told to come here. I was just under orders. I was told to shoot -- only if I'm shot at. I don't want to kill anybody.''

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan had announced earlier that enemy soldiers captured at Souq al-Shuyukh would soon be shown on state television.

HEAVY FIGHTING

General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC television some Americans -- fewer than 10 -- were missing in southern Iraq, but a defence official said later the exact numbers of prisoners were unclear.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the missing U.S. personnel were probably members of a maintenance unit that was operating in southern Iraq, but did not say how many were missing, citing numbers from eight to 12.

Two of the prisoners shown by Iraqi TV said they were from the 507th Maintenance Company.

The 507th Corps Support Group provides supplies, equipment, repairs and maintenance and would usually provide support as far forward as possible to the 82nd Airborne Division, the 3rd Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division.

U.S. officers said Marines battling Iraqi guerrillas for Nassiriya, on the Euphrates river about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad, had taken ''significant'' casualties in a fight to open a route north to the Iraqi capital.

The second prisoner shown, who gave his name as Joseph Hudson, said he came from El Paso, Texas.

Asked why he had come to Iraq, he said: ''I follow orders.''

He was asked repeatedly whether he was greeted by guns or flowers by Iraqis, but appeared not to understand the question.

A third man who appeared to have a broken arm, was lying on a red patterned rug, but was pulled into a sitting position to answer questions. He gave his name as Edgar from Texas and said only that he had entered Iraq from Kuwait.

A fourth prisoner gave his name as Sergeant James Riley from New Jersey and said he was 31 years old. He appeared to be in shock, turning his head from side to side.

The fifth, an African American woman who gave her name as Shawna, said she was 30 and had a bandaged ankle.

Appearing on CBS television, Rumsfeld was shown the footage of the soldiers.

''That's a violation of the Geneva Convention, those pictures you showed,'' he said of the international law on treatment of prisoners of war, which he said prohibits the photographing or interrogation by media of those captured in battle.

Pictures of Iraqi soldiers surrendering to U.S.-led forces in that last few days have been features prominently on U.S. television and in newspapers.

[Theresa]

WASHINGTON (March 25) - Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was wounded by U.S. bombs and missiles dropped on a government compound south of Baghdad in the opening salvo of the war last week, USA Today newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"We know we hit him. We know he was wounded," an unidentified intelligence official told the newspaper. The official was reported to be involved in tracking Saddam.

"We also believe he hasn't left Baghdad," USA Today was told.

The newspaper also cited intelligence sources as saying Delta Force commandos in Baghdad had tapped Saddam's underground phone lines and the Central Intelligence Agency recruited an Iraqi official who knew where Saddam sleeps.

At the Pentagon, Navy Lt. Dan Hetlage declined comment on the reports, but noted that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had described the initial strike on Saddam's compound as "successful."

"Saddam is not the only target," Hetlage said. "The goal is to remove the entire regime."

Speculation about Saddam's whereabouts and health has been widespread since the United States launched a war to topple him by bombing a bunker where he, his two sons and others in the Iraqi leadership were believed to have been staying.

Iraqi television on Monday showed Saddam wearing a military uniform and reading a speech.

He praised his commanders and fighters, who have stalled the U.S.-led advance in places, and told them U.S., British and other invasion forces had underestimated their resolve.

While U.S. and British officials said the man in the broadcast was likely Saddam, they said he could have recorded the address in advance.

[Theresa]

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (March 25) - Warplanes hammered elite Republican Guards defending Baghdad on Tuesday as U.S. armored columns fought through swirling sandstorms to close in on the Iraqi capital.

Field commanders said the war unleashed by the United States and Britain last week to topple President Saddam Hussein was on track, but America's top soldier said the hardest combat of the war still lay ahead.

In southern Iraq, U.S. Marines finally punched past Iraqi resistance to cross the Euphrates river at Nassiriya. But they met a fresh ambush on the road north, despite an air strike that killed at least 30 Iraqis apparently heading into battle.

Military briefers told reporters at Central Command in Qatar that U.S. paratroopers had seized a desert landing strip overnight and that six Iraqi jamming systems aimed at disrupting U.S. satellite positioning equipment had been destroyed.

And in the far south, British and U.S. commanders said they had finally snuffed out resistance by Iraqi gunmen in the deepwater port of Umm Qasr, which could now be opened to aid supplies for the hungry and thirsty local population.

But as the battle front moved closer to Baghdad, main prize in the campaign, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers said: "We think the toughest fighting is ahead of us."

Waves of air raids hit Baghdad's outer defenses, sending shock waves from distant blasts thudding into the city.

"It's a really heavy attack," Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki said. "Even though the explosions are quite far away, they are shaking buildings in the center of the city."

The Medina Division of Republican Guards stands between Baghdad and U.S. armored columns that have thrust to the Kerbala area, 60 miles south of the capital.

Three loud explosions also rocked the city center, prompting panic as cars sped away and pedestrians raced for cover.

Ladki said warplanes could be heard but not seen through dust storms and smoke from blazing oil-trenches around Baghdad.

"The Medina division is now under heavy air attack although poor weather will hamper this," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London. "In the five days since military action began, a huge amount has already been achieved."

U.S. FORCES TO CONSOLIDATE

At the briefing in Qatar, Major-General Victor Renuart said as many as 1,400 air sorties were expected on Tuesday, focusing on the Republican Guard, but he admitted the bad weather had affected the ground forces.

"It's a little bit ugly out there today," Renuart said. "Weather has had an impact on the battlefield with high winds, with some rain, with some thunderstorms, and that's occurred really throughout the country, so it's been not a terribly comfortable day on the battlefield."

Reuters correspondents with the advancing columns said choking dust storms had cut visibility to five yards in places and forced vehicles to drive nose-to-tail at low speed.

A British defense source said troops approaching the capital would pause while support lines are strengthened. Military analysts have suggested the advance is dangerously extended.

"They are moving into that area now. Initial positions are bring taken up today and then we have to consolidate combat support," said the source, who asked not to be named.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said U.S. and British attacks had killed 16 Iraqis and wounded 95 over the past 24 hours. He said Iraq had killed eight invading soldiers.

A senior Pentagon source said he could not confirm U.S. media reports that Iraqi leaders had drawn a "red line" around Baghdad within which Republican Guards had been authorized to use chemical weapons. Iraq denies that it has such weapons.

U.S. and British forces have met stronger resistance than expected. "Their dreams of a short and easy war have started to evaporate and their hopes of defeating the Iraqi people are being destroyed," an Iraqi military spokesman said.

Fears of a lengthy war unsettled markets. Oil prices firmed and the dollar sank. Safe-haven gold and bond prices rose.

U.S. Marines finally crossed the Euphrates and the Saddam Canal in Nassiriya, but soon ran into more trouble.

"We're getting ambushed up there right now," said Lew Craparotta, commander of the Third Battalion, First Marine Infantry regiment, on the road north of Nassiriya.

Earlier, this correspondent watched the convoy race through the streets along a protective corridor of U.S. armor, before leaving a hostile city and its two strategic bridges behind.

The Marines used helicopters, tanks and artillery against the Iraqis, who had held them up for three days. The Marines have put their losses at 10 dead, 12 wounded and 16 missing.

DEADLY AIR STRIKE

As the Marine convoy pushed north, it passed the corpses of at least 30 Iraqis, apparently killed in an air strike that hit buses, trucks and cars some 12 miles north of Nassiriya.

All the dead were men, some of them wearing the black clothes of Iraqi irregular forces. Other men, many of them wounded, were taken prisoner by U.S. Marines.

Saddam urged Iraqi tribesmen to join the battle against U.S. and British forces, without waiting for further orders.

"The enemy has violated your lands and now they are violating your tribes and families," the Iraqi leader said in a statement read on his behalf on state television.

With the Marine force now across the Euphrates at Nassiriya, a separate military column was heading up the main Basra-Baghdad highway, which crosses the river to the west of Nassiriya.

British forces south of Basra blocked an attempted breakout by up to 50 Iraqi tanks seeking to press southward from the edge of the city, a British naval commander said.

Renuart said U.S. and British forces did not plan to besiege Basra, Iraq's second city, but would hit military targets there.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded action to improve the humanitarian situation in Basra. "A city of that size cannot afford to go without electricity or water for long," he said.

Blair said he would visit the United States to meet President Bush on Wednesday for the first time since the war began. Blair will also meet Annan on Wednesday.

British forces acknowledged their second combat death, saying a soldier from the Black Watch 1st Battalion had been killed in fighting in southern Iraq, taking to 20 the number of dead and missing British troops since the war started.

U.S. forces said they had destroyed a downed Apache attack helicopter to prevent the Iraqis from seizing any of the sophisticated targeting equipment and weapons aboard.

The aircraft was lost during an attack by several dozen helicopters on Republican Guards near Kerbala. The two pilots were captured by Iraqi forces and shown on local television.

[Theresa]

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (March 25) - In a friendly fire incident, an American F-16 fired on a U.S. Patriot missile battery in Iraq after the battery's radar locked on the jet, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday. No U.S. casualties were reported.

The strike Monday was the war's second involving Patriot batteries apparently failing to distinguish between friendly and hostile targets.

On Sunday, a U.S. Patriot missile battery shot down a Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 near the Kuwaiti border, killing the two crew members.

Monday's incident occurred about 30 miles south of Najaf, said Lt. Mark Kitchens, a U.S. Central Command spokesman. The F-16 fired an AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missile at the battery and damaged its radar, he said.

He said the strike was under investigation ''to identify procedural changes to ensure the safety of our air crews and Patriot crews in combat operations,'' he said without elaborating.

It wasn't clear what caused it, but Kitchens said ''all parties involved executed according to their training.''

He acknowledged the similarity of the incident involving the RAF aircraft, but denied it indicated a failure on the part of the Patriot system or its ability to tell friend from foe.

''The two incidents are separate and distinct and both are under review,'' he said.

In Sunday's incident, a U.S. Patriot battery intercepted the British Tornado as it was returning from a mission to strike Republican Guard targets near Baghdad.

Analysts said that interception was unusual because coalition aircraft would have all been outfitted with an Identify Friend or Foe system signal that is compatible with all member countries of the coalition. The IFF, also used in civil aviation, sends an automatic response when a radar system queries it.

Kitchens said it wasn't clear if an IFF failure was responsible for Monday's incident.

The RAF shootdown caused the first confirmed deaths from friendly fire in the war against Saddam Hussein's regime.

Meanwhile, six satellite jamming devices, which Iraq was using to try to thwart American precision guided weapons, were destroyed and have had ''no effect'' on U.S. military operations, a U.S. general said Tuesday.

President Bush had called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to complain about the alleged sales of high-tech equipment, which could pose a threat to American troops. The Kremlin denied the allegations that Moscow had broken U.N. sanctions to sell such devices to Saddam Hussein's regime.

''We have noticed some attempts by the Iraqis to use a GPS jamming system that they obtained from another nation. We have destroyed all six of those jammers in the last two nights' airstrikes. I'm pleased to say they had no effect on us,'' said Air Force Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart.

U.S. forces were ''on track'' in the drive toward Baghdad despite sandstorms that enveloped troops on the battlefield Tuesday, he said.

''The dark days are probably coming for the dark side, and Saddam's regime has more dark days ahead than we do,'' Renuart said.

U.S. forces were ''maintaining and increasing pressure on all fronts, even in the bad weather,'' he said.

''It's a little bit ugly out there today,'' Renuart said. ''Weather has had an impact - wind, rain, thunderstorms. It's not been a terribly comfortable day on the battlefield. However, that hasn't stopped us.''

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks showed video of U.S. forces parachuting into Iraq and taking a desert airstrip in an undisclosed location. He also said Iraqi forces had been hiding weapons next to civilian buildings and displayed pictures of a water treatment plant with an anti-aircraft missile battery located next to it. He said the missiles were destroyed without damage to the plant.

He also pointed out on an intelligence photo that Iraq had hidden a MiG fighter in a cemetery next to an airfield.

Renuart warned Iraqi civilians to stay away from military formations and buildings used by Saddam's regime and its leaders. He also advised them to keep off the roads to limit casualties.

''It's very difficult to guarantee their safety on this battlefield,'' Renuart said.

''I continue to remind the people of Iraq that the battlefield extends across the country now,'' he said. ''We have forces in all areas of the country. It's not really safe for Iraqis to drive, to try to flee danger. It's really much safer for them to remain in their houses.''

Asked about Iraqi casualties, including children who had been hospitalized as a result of U.S. attacks, Renuart said: ''It is a tragedy to see the children that are injured.''

''Warfare, even its most precise fashion, is not absolute. There are errors that occur,'' he said.

Renuart said coalition forces were building prisoner of war camps for the Iraqi prisoners which U.S. officials have estimated to number more than 3,000.

He said the International Committee of the Red Cross would have full access to the camps.

Renuart said Marines fighting Iraqi army and Saddam Fedayeen militia around the southern city of An Nasiriyah ''did suffer some casualties,'' but he refused to give numbers or other details until families were told.

''I'd like to not confirm numbers because we are still assuring that proper notification has been done,'' Renuart said.

He also could not be specific about Iraqi killed or wounded.

''I really could not tell you. A lot of our airstrikes are in places we don't not have military forces to actually do that kind of accounting work so it would be unfair of me to make any assessment of Iraqi casualties.''

Renuart said key targets on the battlefield were surface-to-surface missiles and the Iraqi elite troops of the Republican Guard.

Asked about weapons of mass destruction, he said coalition forces were checking a number of sites that had been the subject of concern in the past, but there had been no confirmation of banned weapons having been found.

''We continue to interview key leaders we've detained on the battlefield and we're developing that information to lead us to more sites,'' he said.

Coalition forces reported that Iraqis have begun igniting huge trenches filled with oil outside Baghdad, sending up plumes of black smoke.

''Unfortunately, this shows the regime is very willing to destroy its own resources to protect itself,'' Brooks said.

Renuart accused Iraqi forces, especially the Fedayeen militia, of ''terrorizing neighborhoods'' and using civilians as human shields.

''Human shields are a cowardly way to act on the battlefield,'' Renuart said. ''I'm comfortable that we will not put our troops in the position where we would disregard the safety of any noncombatants.''

Coalition forces reported that Iraqis have begun igniting huge trenches filled with oil outside Baghdad, sending up plumes of black smoke.

''Unfortunately, this shows the regime is very willing to destroy its own resources to protect itself,'' Brooks said.

[Captain Leah Manzer]

Q: Why has Saddam Hussein never been indicted with crimes against humanity for his well documented use of weapons of mass destruction on his own people?

A: Eric Margolis, foreign affairs analyst: Two reasons. Some of his worst crimes occurred during the 1980's and when there was no international mechanism for indicting such criminal acts and in fact the United States even today refuses to go along with a criminal court for such crimes. The other reason is that Iraq was an ally of the United States and Britain in its war against Iran. And so long as it fought Iran, the west was happy to hush up the crimes that have been committed by Saddam. And by the way I must add that the infamous gassing of the Kurds may have been done by the Iranians and not the Iraqis, so says the CIA desk chief for Iraq.

Peter Mansbridge: Most people accept the belief that it was done by Saddam Hussein himself, partly on the testimony of the people who were there at the time who survived the gas attacks.

Margolis: Well, the Kurds were caught in a battle between the Iranians and the Iraqis both of whom were using chemical weapons so it's a moot point.

[Commander VanPay]

All I have to say about War is lets do it, why you ask, because "Have You Forgotton" about what binn londin did to us on 911 I know I sure the heck didn't "Have you forgotton" about your home land beging destroyed I sure didn't some say where out looking for a fight and man after 9-11 I have to say that's right. So all I have to say about war is lets do it and in the words of Daryl Warrly "Have You Forgotten"!

[Commander VanPay]

This is the song I was talking about read it and you will understand why we should go to war....

Have You Forgotten?
(Darryl Worley/Wynn Varble)

I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start your preaching let me ask you this my friend

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it's too disturbing for you and me
It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say
If it was up to me I'd show it everyday
Some say this country's just out looking for a fight
After 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet that they remember
Just what they're fighting for

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Some went down like heros in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost and those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry about bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?
Have you forgotten?




Let me know what you think of this song. Also after you have read this song you will understand why we should go to war.

[Seven of Nine]

Nice song

There's no CONFIRMED link between Bin Laden and Iraq, though.

[Theresa]

[Commander VanPay]

I'm so sorry I though this was for disusging War it is my fait.

[Theresa]

[Theresa]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (March 2 - Iraq's information minister said at least 58 people were killed Friday in a crowded market in northwest Baghdad by what local officials called a coalition bombing.

The market was strewn with wreckage and there were bloodstains on a sidewalk. Crowds of mourners wailed and blood-soaked children's slippers sat on the street not far from a crater blasted into the ground.

The U.S. Central Command in Qatar said it was looking into the report. Iraqi officials have blamed U.S. forces for explosions at another market that killed 14 people on Wednesday. The Pentagon had denied targeting the neighborhood.

Early Saturday, a strong explosion shook the center of Baghdad, and it appeared to be located on the west bank of the Tigris River. Many government departments are located in the area, including the Information Ministry.

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf said 58 people were killed in the market explosion, and said the number was likely to rise because many others were wounded. There were conflicting reports, however, on the number of casualties.

Haqi Ismail Razouq, director of al-Nour Hospital, where the dead and injured were taken, put the death toll at 30 and the number of injured at 47; surgeon Issa Ali Ilwan said 47 were killed and 50 injured. Witnesses said they counted as many as 50 bodies.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

''Why do they makes mistakes like these if they have the technology?'' asked Abdel-Hadi Adai, who said he lost his 27-year-old brother-in-law Najah Abdel-Rida in the blast. ''There are no military installations anywhere near here.''

Sahhaf said civilians were being targeted because Iraqi troops had defeated coalition forces in battles

''These are cowardly air raids,'' he told Lebanon's Al-Hayat LBC satellite television.

Most of the injuries were caused by shrapnel, said Dr. Ahmed Sufian.

''The women and children were screaming,'' he said. ''We were overwhelmed. What will they hit next? This hospital?''

The Al-Nasr market is in the working-class district of al-Shoala. Witnesses said the bombing took place when the market was at its busiest, around 6 p.m. They said they saw an aircraft flying high overhead just before the blast.

The explosion left a crater the size of a coffee table on a sidewalk in front of a row of food and other shops. Curiously, nothing was blackened in the immediate surrounding area.

Water was seeping from ruptured pipes and corrugated iron was dangling from the roofs of the damaged shops.

A red Volkswagen was parked only a few yards from the crater, peppered with what could have been flying shrapnel.

At the hospital, relatives of the dead and wounded wept hysterically and yelled the names of their loved ones. Many searched for relatives or friends.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Ali Kheidir Saleh, 23, said he was in a house near the market when the blast brought down part of the house.

Another of the injured, 52-year-old construction contractor Salman Zaki Kazim, was struck by shrapnel in his hip. He was shopping for a TV antenna, accompanied by his granddaughter and son-in-law, at the time of the bombing. Neither was hurt.

At the scene of the bombing, women in black chadors were sobbing outside homes where some of the victims lived. Men cried and hugged each other and participants in a funeral procession shouted the Muslim creed, ''There is no God but God,'' as they walked through the market.

Down the road, residents gathered at a Shiite Muslim mosque, crowded around seven wooden coffins draped in blankets. Some of the men stood silently. Others sobbed into trembling hands. In the background, women cried, ''Oh God! Oh God!''

Another witness, Omar Ismail, a 35-year-old engineer who witnessed the explosion, said body parts were strewn across the street.

''Why do they hate the Iraqi people so much?'' he asked.

Iraqi state television, meanwhile, said three Iraqis had been arrested for spying for the United States, alleging they were assigned to inspect areas of Baghdad that had been attacked to determine if they needed to be hit again.

The report identified the men as Ibrahim Abdel Qader, Ghareeb Ahmed Hamadeh and Hussein Shahed. Qader was quoted as saying he was given about two pounds of TNT from ''foreigners - Americans,'' and Shahed said he was recruited by an American he identified as ''Gen. Mike'' who was from the CIA.

Explosions in the capital late Thursday night and early Friday were aimed at disrupting communications between Saddam Hussein's leadership and his military, U.S. officials said. Airstrikes also targeted positions of the Republican Guard - Saddam's best-trained, best-equipped fighters - in a ring outside the city.

Sahhaf said the overnight airstrikes had killed seven people in Baghdad and wounded 92. The Arab television network Al-Jazeera reported eight people were killed at Baath party headquarters in bombing Friday afternoon.

The airstrikes hit at or near the Information and Planning ministries and at telephone installations - ''as if government buildings are empty of human beings and there are no civilians in them,'' Sahhaf said.

The attack gutted a seven-story telephone exchange building in an area called Al-Alwya.

[Theresa]

KUWAIT CITY (March 2 - A missile fell into the sea and exploded near a major shopping mall in Kuwait City early Saturday, but officials said it caused no injuries and little damage.

Police Brig. Ahmed al-Rujaid said the missile landed at about 1:45 a.m. (5:45 p.m. EST Friday) close to the Souq Sharq mall.

Parts of the ceiling and walls littered the ground in a covered entry way after the explosion.

''There were no injuries and material damage is very small,'' al-Rujaid said, though television images showed smoke rising over the Kuwaiti skyline.

Souq Sharq is on the Kuwaiti seafront and includes a marina, shops and restaurants.

U.S. Patriot missile batteries guard Kuwait against missile attacks by neighboring Iraq. In Doha, Qatar, the U.S. Central Command said it was investigating the explosion but had no further information and could not confirm a missile attack.

[Theresa]

LONDON (March 28 ) - British forces are ''nowhere near'' capturing the key city of Basra in southern Iraq, a British commander said Friday, adding that coalition forces underestimated the level of resistance by forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein.

Basra was ''clearly nowhere near yet in our hands,'' British military spokesman Col. Chris Vernon told Sky News television. ''We have no way at the moment of getting humanitarian aid into Basra.

''But as we begin to pressurize Basra and begin to dominate it militarily, it is fixed in military terms,'' Vernon said from southern Iraq. ''Nothing can move in or out militarily. We should move toward a day when we can get humanitarian aid into Basra.''

British troops ringing Iraq's second city have come up against stiff resistance over the last week, particularly from militia linked to the ruling Baath party. Aid agencies say lack of drinking water and medical supplies mean Basra's 1.3 million people are facing a humanitarian crisis.

Vernon suggested that although British forces had little difficulty overcoming regular Iraqi troops, they were finding the paramilitary forces harder to beat than anticipated.

''Where we come across the Iraqi army, our assessment was they are defeated very, very easily conventionally,'' he said. ''The irregular resistance, we thought there was going to be some. It's probably true to say, its level of resolve and numbers might have anticipated our initial assessments.''

Gen. Michael Jackson, the British chief of general staff, rejected reports that coalition forces had become ''bogged down'' by weather and greater than expected resistance from Iraq.

''Armies cannot move forever without stopping from time to time, to regroup, to ensure that their supplies are up and even, believe it or not, soldiers need a bit of sleep from time to time,'' Jackson said at a briefing in London.

''So this 'bogged down' is a tendentious phrase. It's a pause whilst people get themselves sorted out for what comes next.''

British troops destroyed a column of 14 Iraqi tanks moving out of Basra on Thursday. British commanders said Baath militia were forcing regular Iraqi troops to confront coalition forces by taking their families hostage.

''There's been artillery coming out of Basra for the last five days now. We're not actually engaging into the center. But we have engaged around the outsides,'' Vernon said. ''The key to Basra is to eradicate the Baath party control and the irregular forces operating under their control, so that the lid is taken off the people.''

Basra has so far been the main engagement for British forces in the U.S.-led operation to dislodge Saddam and rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.

Twenty-two British troops have been killed so far, including two soldiers ambushed last Sunday and whose dead bodies were shown on television earlier this week.

The sister of one of the soldiers was quoted Friday as denying Prime Minister Tony Blair's claim that he had been executed by Iraqi forces.

Nina Allsopp was quoted by The Daily Mirror newspaper as saying the army had told her that her brother, Sapper Luke Allsopp, died instantly in combat.

On Thursday, Blair referred to the two men as ''executed British soldiers'' and called their treatment ''an act of cruelty beyond comprehension.''

[Theresa]

SOUTH-CENTRAL IRAQ (March 30) -- Thousands of Marines pushed north toward Baghdad in ``seek-and-destroy'' missions Sunday, trying to open the route to the Iraqi capital and stop days of attacks along the stretch that has become known as ``Ambush Alley.''

Charging into previously unsecured areas, the Marines tried to provoke attacks in order to find Iraqi fighters and defeat them. A chaplain traveling with them handed out humanitarian packages to distrustful Iraqi civilians encountered along the way.

The U.S.-led forces reported other successes Sunday. In Najaf - where an Iraqi suicide attack Saturday killed four U.S. troops - the 101st Airborne division surrounded the city Sunday and secured an airfield after fierce fighting.

Iraqi forces had fired mortars at Apache helicopters, forcing the aircraft to pull back and call in artillery backup, according to field reports.

The division was now poised to enter the holy Shiite city and begin rooting out paramilitary forces that have waged stiff resistance for days, said Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill of the 101st Airborne Division.

In Nasirayah, scene of fierce fighting over the past week, a Marine raid secured buildings held by the Iraqi 11th Infantry Division that contained large caches of chemical decontamination equipment, weapons and ammunition.

The U.S. Central Command reported that in one building, they found more than 300 chemical suits and gas masks, atropine injectors, two chemical decontamination vehicles and other decontamination devices.

In another, they found more than 800 rocket-propelled grenades, along with mines, hundreds of mortar and artillery rounds and thousands of rifle rounds - so much, said Col. Ron Johnson, Task Force Tarawa Operations Officer, that ``it would be too dangerous to the city to blow it in place. We are going to have to transport it somewhere safe.''

On the Marine route north, Army supply trucks appeared for the first time Sunday, confirming field reports that Army and Marine forces were meeting for the first time in the ground invasion. Marines have been trekking north along Route 80 - known as the ``Highway of Death'' - and Army forces have punched their way across desert terrain.

Rank-and-file Marines, ordered to intercept and question each civilian they see along the route after an Iraqi army officer attacked a group of Americans in a suicide bomb attack Saturday, also handed out ration packets. For hungry Iraqis, this gift was the only thing that could convince them the Marines were not there to hurt them.

One Marine said an Iraqi prisoner of war had told him ``they'd heard to be a Marine you had to eat a baby, or kill someone.''

Frightened Iraqis scrambled into their homes at the sight of the Americans, Marines said. One old woman clutched her mule with one hand and smacked her dogs forward with the other, trying to get them to attack the approaching American soldiers. Like many other exchanges, that encounter ended with smiles and gratitude for the rations.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the war in Iraq, said coalition warplanes hit a series of targets in the Iraqi capital overnight into Sunday morning. In a ``key strike,'' coalition aircraft bombed the eastern Baghdad barracks of the main training facility of the Iraqi paramilitary forces.

With advancing ground forces expecting a showdown with Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard in the final 50-mile march to Baghdad, the coalition sought to hobble Iraqi forces by striking a fuel depot in the holy Shiite city of Karbala.

``While the army is not moving forward, it is the turn of the air to shape the battle space,'' said Wing Commander Andy Suddards, the British pilot who led the attack. ``If the tanks have no fuel, it is all going to help.''

Coalition warplanes also struck surface-to-air missile batteries in eastern Baghdad, as well as the Abu Garayb presidential palace, just east of Baghdad's international airport, and two facilities at the Karada intelligence complex, on the banks of the Tigris River, Central Command said.

To the south, British commandos exchanged fire with Iraqi paramilitaries in an eastern suburb of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, British military spokesman Group Capt. Al Lockwood said. The operation apparently aims to block off any escape route for Iraqi forces trying to leave Basra.

``They are putting up some resistance, but they are disorganized,'' Lockwood said of the paramilitary forces.

At least 4,000 Iraqi prisoners of war have been taken by the coalition since the conflict began, Lockwood said. On Saturday, a British tribunal released 35 civilians who had been swept up among them, he said.

British forces surrounding Basra have skirmished with paramilitaries loyal to Saddam for several days, mostly on the city's western outskirts. The Arab satellite television channel al-Jazeera, which has a correspondent in Basra, also reported a 90-minute exchange of tank and artillery fire Sunday near a bridge on the city's western edge.

Basra, Iraq's main seaport, is the heart of the country's southern oil facilities. A mostly Shiite Muslim city of about 1.3 million people, many in Basra may oppose Saddam's Sunni Muslim regime, but the city remains in the grip of his ruling Baath party militia.

One Baath official warned on Arab television that fighters were competing to die in suicide attacks like the one that killed four American soldiers Saturday.

``The holy warriors are rushing to die or be martyred,'' said Abdul-Baqi Saadoun, the No. 2 Baath official in southern Iraq, in an interview broadcast Sunday on al-Jazeera.

[Theresa]

KUWAIT CITY (March 30) -- A man in civilian clothes drove a pickup truck into a group of U.S. soldiers standing outside a store at the Kuwaiti desert base of Camp Udairi on Sunday.

About six people were injured, said Lt. Col. Larry Cox, public affairs officer at the Coalition press office in Kuwait City, contrary to an earlier report that 10 to 15 were hurt. There were no details about the injured or where they were being treated.

No explosives were found in the truck, a Pentagon official said.

The driver of the truck was a ''third-country national'' who was being detained by U.S. military forces, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official did not know which country the driver was from.

Another military official said the driver definitely was not American and did not appear to be Kuwaiti.

It would not be uncommon for third-country nationals to be working at U.S. military installations in Kuwait. More than half of the people in Kuwait are foreign workers, many from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and other Middle Eastern countries.

Camp Udairi is primarily a V Corps aviation base that is also used for maintenance and supply.

Kuwait, an oil-rich desert state slightly smaller than New Jersey, has hosted a virtually permanent U.S. Army presence since the Gulf War ended in 1991. Now it is the key launching pad for U.S. ground forces invading Iraq.

American troops and civilians have been killed or wounded in Kuwait in separate incidents since October.

Islamic extremists were blamed for the Jan. 21 shooting that killed a San Diego computer contractor and injured another American close to Camp Doha, where U.S. forces are based.

A Kuwaiti policeman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounding two U.S. soldiers Nov. 21.

In October, Muslim fundamentalists killed one U.S. Marine and injured another on a Kuwaiti island. Other Marines killed the gunmen.

On March 23, a grenade attack killed two U.S. officers and wounded 14 soldiers at a 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait. U.S. soldier Hasan Akbar, 32, is being held in the case.

[Pah-Wraith]

I actually Try getting news from Neutral Countries because no offense but Sometimes the News from The Coalition countries (Britain, US) can be Biased and Al Jazeera Television can be some what Propaganda ridden

[Theresa]

[Theresa]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (April 3) - With U.S. ground forces closing in fast, Saddam Hussein exhorted the Iraqi people to ''fight them with your hands,'' according to a statement read Thursday on Iraqi satellite television.

The statement - addressed to the people of the region southeast of Baghdad - was read by Information Minister Saeed al-Sahhaf.

''Fight them with your hands, God will disgrace them. God is great,'' the statement said.

At a news conference later Thursday, Sahhaf disputed the coalition claims of battle successes. ''All this is to cover their disappointment and inability,'' he said.

Sahhaf said Republican Guard forces battled coalition troops in the area south of Kut and ''taught them lessons, a catastrophe,'' inflicting heavy casualties and forcing a coalition retreat. ''We buried a lot of them today,'' he said.

He also claimed Iraqi forces killed scores of coalition troops on Wednesday at Basra.

''We're now trying to exhaust them, making them more tired until our leadership decides the time and method to clean our territory of their desecration,'' Sahhaf said.

The U.S. military reported only three Marines wounded in the fighting at Kut and said its forces were advancing into the outskirts on Baghdad unhindered by the Republican Guard.

[Theresa]

WASHINGTON (April 3) - A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down south of Baghdad Wednesday, killing seven soldiers and wounding four, Pentagon officials said.

Initial reports indicate that helicopter was downed by small-arms fire near Karbala, Pentagon officials said. The Euphrates River city was the site of fierce fighting between the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and Iraqi troops, including Republican Guard forces.

The Black Hawk was the second U.S. helicopter to go down in combat. An Army Apache assault helicopter went down March 24 during an assault on Republican Guard forces; its two pilots were captured by Iraqis.

There was some initial confusion about the downing Wednesday night. U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar issued an initial statement saying six were believed to have been aboard and ``casualties have not been confirmed at this point.''

But Pentagon officials said their initial reports showed seven soldiers aboard the helicopter were killed and four were wounded and rescued.

The UH-60 Black Hawk is one of the Army's main utility and troop transport helicopters. Each is flown by a crew of four and can carry up to 11 soldiers.

The helicopters are equipped with advanced avionics and electronics, such as global positioning systems and night-vision equipment.

A Black Hawk crashed in a remote, wooded area of Fort Drum, N.Y., during a training exercise last month, killing 11 of the 13 soldiers aboard.

In February, a Black Hawk crashed during night training in the Kuwaiti desert, killing all four crew members. The Kuwaiti military said sandstorms were reported in the area at the time the chopper went down.

In January, an MH-60, an adapted version of the Black Hawk, crashed during training near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, killing four members of an elite aviation regiment.

[Theresa]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (April 3) - With U.S. ground forces closing in fast, Saddam Hussein exhorted the Iraqi people to ''fight them with your hands,'' according to a statement read Thursday on Iraqi satellite television.

The statement - addressed to the people of the region southeast of Baghdad - was read by Information Minister Saeed al-Sahhaf.

''Fight them with your hands, God will disgrace them. God is great,'' the statement said.

At a news conference later Thursday, Sahhaf disputed the coalition claims of battle successes. ''All this is to cover their disappointment and inability,'' he said.

Sahhaf said Republican Guard forces battled coalition troops in the area south of Kut and ''taught them lessons, a catastrophe,'' inflicting heavy casualties and forcing a coalition retreat. ''We buried a lot of them today,'' he said.

He also claimed Iraqi forces killed scores of coalition troops on Wednesday at Basra.

''We're now trying to exhaust them, making them more tired until our leadership decides the time and method to clean our territory of their desecration,'' Sahhaf said.

The U.S. military reported only three Marines wounded in the fighting at Kut and said its forces were advancing into the outskirts on Baghdad unhindered by the Republican Guard.

[Theresa]

WASHINGTON (April 7) - Army soldiers searching a compound in central Iraq found metal drums that may contain chemical weapons, although testing of samples has not been completed, U.S. military officials said Monday.

Laboratory tests in the United States are needed to confirm whether the drums found south of Baghdad contained chemical weapons, pesticides or something else, Pentagon officials said.

A unit of the Army's 101st Airborne Division searched the compound near Hindiyah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Video of the search taken by CNN showed soldiers in gas masks using handheld chemical weapons detectors to investigate metal drums.

''This could be either some type of pesticide, because this was an agricultural compound,'' Gen. Benjamin Freakly told CNN. ''On the other hand, it could be a chemical agent, not weaponized.''

If confirmed as containing chemical agents that could be used in weapons, the drums found near Hindiyah would be the first components of weapons of mass destruction discovered in Iraq during the war. Finding and eliminating Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons is a goal of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and finding some could mute international criticism of the war.

As U.S. troops occupied one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces in Baghdad Monday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said ''the circle is closing'' around the Iraqi leader.

''We do know that he no longer runs much of Iraq,'' Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld suggested, however, that complete victory would come ''later rather than sooner, simply because it's a big country.''

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there were now 125,000 coalition troops inside Iraq and that all but ''a couple of dozen'' of the Iraqi Republican Guard's tanks had been destroyed.

Rumsfeld and Myers both expressed optimism that a top Iraqi official, Ali Hassan al-Majid, had been killed in a U.S. airstrike on his home in southern Iraq. Al-Majid, Saddam's cousin who commanded the southern region of Iraq during the war, was known to his opponents as ''Chemical Ali'' for his role in chemical attacks on Kurds in northern Iraq.

Myers showed a video of the missile attack to reporters at a Pentagon news conference.

''We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end. To Iraqis who have suffered at his hand, particularly in the last few weeks in that southern part of the country, he will never again terrorize you or your families,'' Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld acknowledged reports about the possible chemical weapons site but said first reports often are incorrect.

''We have to take our time and look at it,'' Rumsfeld said, adding that getting samples to the United States and testing them can take days.

A Knight Ridder News Service journalist traveling with the unit said initial tests of samples from the facility were inconsistent. Some tests did not indicate chemical weapons, while others indicated the presence of G-class nerve agents - which include sarin and tabun - and mustard agent, a blistering chemical first used in World War I.

Sophisticated tests are needed to confirm the presence of chemical weapons because nerve agents are chemically very similar to many pesticides.

Earlier reports about possible chemical weapons finds have turned out to be false alarms. Last week, for example, troops searching the Qaa Qaa military complex south of Baghdad found a white powder that was found to be an explosive.

Iraq acknowledged making 3,859 tons of sarin, tabun, mustard and other chemical weapons, though United Nations inspectors suspected Iraq could have made much more. Iraq used mustard and sarin against Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and is believed to have used the chemicals against Kurdish Iraqis.

Sarin and tabun are related nerve agents that can kill when absorbed through the skin or inhaled as a gas. They kill by causing convulsions, paralysis and asphyxiation.

Mustard agent begins dissolving tissues on contact and is particularly harmful to eyes and lungs. It does not usually kill but causes painful injuries that can linger for a lifetime.

[Theresa]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (April 7) - American troops and tanks rumbled through downtown Baghdad with unstoppable force on Monday, seizing one of Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces, toppling a 40-foot statue of the Iraqi ruler and pushing his regime to the brink of irrelevance.

Some Iraqi soldiers jumped into the Tigris River to flee the advancing column of more than 100 armored vehicles. About a dozen others were captured and placed inside a hastily erected POW pen on the grounds of the bombed-out, blue-and-gold-domed New Presidential Palace.

An estimated 600 to 1,000 Iraqi troops were killed during the operation, said Col. David Perkins. ''We had a lot of suicide attackers today,'' he said. ''These guys are going to die in droves ... They keep trying to ram the tanks with car bombs.''

Tank-killing A-10 Warthogs and pilotless drones provided air cover as Americans briefly surrounded another prominent symbol of Saddam's power, the Information Ministry, as well as the city's best-known hotel, the Al-Rashid. Tanks rolled briefly up to another one of Saddam's many palaces.

It was the third straight day the Army penetrated Saddam's seat of power. This time, though, there were plans to stay. Rather than withdrawing at nightfall, as units did over the weekend, members of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division hunkered down for the night at the sprawling, splendored New Presidential Palace where Saddam once slept.

Several miles away, two soldiers and two journalists were killed in a rocket attack on the 3rd Infantry Division south of Baghdad, the U.S. Central Command reported. Another 15 soldiers were injured in the attack on an infantry position south of the city.

On the other side of town, Marines encountered tough fighting as they entered Baghdad for the first time, coming under machine gun fire. Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy said two Marines were killed and two were injured after an artillery shell hit their armored personnel carrier.

Marines crossed into Baghdad from the east, their engineers deploying a temporary pontoon bridge over a canal at the southern edge of the city after Iraqis rendered the permanent structure unsafe for heavy, armored vehicles.

Hours later, the sound of occasional American artillery split the night air.

The regime, its brutal hold on a country of 24 million slipping away, denied all of it. ''There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all,'' insisted Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.

The Iraqi government maintained its hold over state-run television and radio - arguably its most important remaining levers of control over the country - and broadcast emotional appeals to resist U.S. forces. Also shown were images of Saddam meeting with key advisers.

The American military flexed its muscle in downtown Baghdad while British officials said one of the regime's most brutal leaders, Ali Hassan al-Majid, had apparently been killed in a weekend airstrike in the southern city of Basra.

A cousin of Saddam, al-Majid was dubbed ''Chemical Ali'' for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

Defense officials also said testing was underway on samples taken from a site where soldiers found metal drums possibly containing nerve gas or another type of chemical weapon. A local commander said it was possible the substance was a pesticide, since it was found at an agricultural site near Hindiyah, south of Baghdad.

After a two-week siege, British forces claimed control over Basra, a city of 1.3 million. Hundreds of civilians, women in chadors and barefoot children among them, poured into the street to welcome the invaders. Some handed pink carnations to the British troops in appreciation.

American and British troops advanced in Iraq as their political leaders were meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland. For President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, it was the second summit since the fighting began.

''The hostilities phase is coming to a conclusion,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. Without elaboration, he said the U.S. government is sending a team this week to Iraq to begin laying the groundwork for an interim authority.

In the war zone, Americans felt confident enough for Gen. Tommy Franks, overall commander of Operation Iraqi Freedom, to visit troops in Najaf and elsewhere. The four-star general wore camouflaged body armor and a black beret as his Black Hawk helicopter carried him on his tour.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, said all but ''a couple of dozen'' of the Iraqi military's tanks had been destroyed in less than three weeks of combat.

Senior officials at the Pentagon said the Army assault into Baghdad was part of an attempt to persuade Iraqi forces that further resistance was futile. The military would like to avoid an all-out urban battle in Baghdad, with its 5 million inhabitants.

''We can basically go wherever we want, whenever we want, even if Saddam is still alive,'' said Perkins, who commanded the Army troops inside the city.

Missiles screamed overhead and explosions shook buildings inside the city as more than 70 Army tanks, more than 60 Bradley fighting vehicles and an estimated 3,000 troops pushed their way into the heart of Baghdad.

Iraqi snipers fired on soldiers from rooms in the al-Rashid hotel, and tanks returned fire with their main guns and .50 caliber machine guns.

Across the river from the New Presidential Palace, Iraqis took up positions around the University of Baghdad, firing heavy machine guns across the 400-yard width of the Tigris River. Americans responded with mortar fire and close air support to rout the Iraqis.

The New Presidential Palace showed the effects of recent U.S.-led bombing. Even so, once inside, Americans found creature comforts undreamed of in a country where more than half the population is dependent on international food assistance.

Beneath the dust, the imitation French Baroque furniture was painted gold. The palace had numerous swimming pools, and troops rifled through documents and helped themselves to ashtrays, pillows, gold-painted Arab glassware and other souvenirs of war.

The palace had been stripped of most personal items, but the building boasted a sophisticated audio-video system. Troops looking in one cabinet found a collection of pirated movies, ''Les Miserables'' among them.

On a parade grounds nearby, GIs cheered as a statue of Saddam on horseback was toppled.

At sundown, some troops carried a television from the palace, plugged it into a portable generator and mocked the Iraqi state-run broadcast. ''That looks awfully like the Taliban to me,'' said one unidentified soldier, watching a segment of an old man, wearing a turban and clutching an assault rifle.

It's not clear how many Iraqis have been hurt or killed in Baghdad. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that hospitals in the city have stopped counting the number of people treated.

Americans have twice been victimized by suicide bombers, and among the newly dead was an old Iraqi man. Disoriented and alone, he moved ahead with aid of his cane despite three warning shots. ''After you give the final warning shot, shoot them dead,'' an officer ordered. The rifleman did.

[Theresa]

(April - The television pictures of U.S. tanks in Baghdad seemed undeniable, but Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's spokesman denied them anyway - with his usual flair for insult.

``There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad,'' Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf asserted outside Baghdad's Palestine Hotel on Monday.

"The infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad," he told reporters gathered on the roof of the Information Ministry. "As our leader Saddam Hussein said, 'God is grilling their stomachs in hell.' "

Undeterred by the black smoke billowing behind him over central Baghdad, and the sound of fighting echoing around the capital, he declared the city was safe and protected.

Wearing his trademark green military uniform, with a pistol at the hip, he hurled abuse and insults. The American forces, he said, were "sick in their minds."

A day later, when the hotel came under U.S. tank fire, the Iraqi information minister had to admit to the journalists staying there that coalition forces were in the capital. But, smiling, he made it sound like it was all part of Iraq's plan:

``We blocked them inside the city. Their rear is blocked,'' he said in hurried remarks that were a departure from his daily news conference.

Sahhaf, 63, who kept a low profile before the war, has become an unlikely media star and a hero to many in the Arab world, at the same time as Western audiences gasp at his bravado.

Across the region, Arabs hoping for victory over the United States - hated for its support of Israel and portrayed as attacking Iraq only for its oil - embrace Sahhaf's version. And even when they can't believe what he is saying, they like the way he says it.

They get a kick out of the way he ridicules President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in daily news conferences, broadcast live. Some call it the ``al-Sahhaf show.''

Sahhaf has even introduced insults virtually unknown to the Arab public. His use, for example, of ``uluj,'' an obscure and particularly insulting term for ``infidel,'' sent viewers leafing through their dictionaries and calling TV stations for a definition.

His enemies are never just the Americans or the British. They are ``outlaws,'' ``war criminals,'' ``fools,'' ``stooges,'' an ``international gang of villains.''

Sahhaf has singled out Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, describing him as a ``crook'' and ``the most despicable creature.''

Sahhaf's face, clean-shaven in contrast to most Iraqi officials who sport Saddam-style mustaches, has become a TV fixture, along with his black beret and green Baath party uniform.

``American cruise Tomahawk missiles bomb Iraq, and al-Sahhaf missiles of words deafen the American and allied ears,'' read a headline in the Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

Viewers don't ``pause at what he (Sahaf) says as much as they are eager to listen to his funny words,'' wrote Faisal Salman, managing editor of the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, in his daily column.

"I believe Sahaf exaggerates a little, but he needs to do that to reassure his people," said Hazem, a 25-year-old security guard in Cairo. "Of course he knows that he is talking to the American soldiers as well, so his words are part of the psychological war that's going on."

Abdul-Aziz, a Saudi writer who would not give his last name, said: "Sahaf is vulgar but he is a brave liar...If the rest of the Iraqi government or army were this brave, they would inflict many more losses on U.S. and British forces."

The view is different in the United States and Britain.

"With regard to the information coming out of Baghdad, spin is all very well and to be expected but it has to keep links with reality," said Rear Admiral Richard Cobbold, director of the Royal United Services Institute think-tank.

Some Arab commentators have dubbed Sahaf the ``Iraqi Goebbels,'' after Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's master propagandist.

Sahaf is no stranger to the media and its impact - and to Iraq's rough politics.

He was studying to be an English teacher when he got his start in politics in 1963 by joining a violent group led by Saddam that targeted opponents of the Baath party. After a 1963 coup, he revealed the whereabouts of his brother-in-law, an army general and the country's military prosecutor, who was then killed by Baath party militias. By handing over his relative, Sahaf proved his loyalty to the Baath party.

A Baathist regime was overthrown in another coup the same year, but the party came back five years later. Sahaf was put in charge of securing the radio and television stations and then put at the helm of both. He was known for his temper - even kicking TV and radio employees who displeased him.

Sahaf has been information minister since 2001. Before that, he was foreign minister, from 1993 to 2001. He also has served as Iraq's ambassador to India, Italy and the United Nations.

Although Sahaf has become the most prominent face of the regime of late, he does not have the political or military clout of Saddam's relatives and clansmen.

Sahaf is from Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community, long dominated by Sunnis like Saddam. He has middle-class roots - the family name refers to his father's bookbinding craft - and comes from Hilla, south of Baghdad, not Saddam's Tikrit power base.

Still, it was Sahaf who delivered a recent message in Saddam's name calling for jihad, or holy war, and urging Iraqis to fight on.

Saddam also used Sahaf to deliver some of his more conciliatory messages. Late last year, Sahaf apologized in a statement in the president's name to the people of Kuwait for the 1990 Iraqi invasion. The statement, though, went on to criticize the Kuwaiti leadership for relying on American help.

[Theresa]

BASRA, Iraq (April 9) - Iraqis showed journalists a white stone jail where they claim Saddam Hussein's secret police for decades tortured inmates with beatings, mutilations, electric shocks and chemical baths.

The jail, known as the ``White Lion,'' was charred and half-demolished Tuesday after two days of bombing by British forces fighting for control of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

People taken behind the jail's sandstone facade usually did not come out, residents said.

Hundreds of Iraqis came to see the now-empty jail, according to British press reports. Relatives of missing inmates checked fingerprinted files and lists of names found amid the fallen bricks.

``It was a place of evil,'' resident Hamed Fattil said.

Hamed told British reporters that Iraqi police locked him and his two brothers in a jail dungeon in 1991, and that he was freed after eight months but his brothers were still missing.

``They used to strap a leather cord around our head, hands and shoulders and hoist us two feet off the ground. Then they would beat us as we hung there,'' Hamed said.

``They did unthinkable things - electrocution, immersion in a bath of chemicals and ripping off people's finger and toenails.''

The jail basement was a warren of cells, chambers and cages where the ground was strewn with an insect-eaten gas mask and bottles, according to Associated Press Television News footage.

For the cameras, two men re-enacted how jailers allegedly tortured prisoners.

One man, hands tied behind his back with a rope attached to a hook on the ceiling, bent over while another man pantomimed hitting him on the back and the face with his hands and a long, white rod.

One man shuddered while the other gave him a pretend electric shock.

Outside the jail, a man showed APTN his mangled ears.

Hamed took British reporters into a yard behind the jail into a set of white boxy cells, surrounded by red wire mesh with a low, wire roof.

He said some of the cells, which had red doors with large bolts, were used to hold women and children. He also said hundreds of men were kept in a single cell about the size of a living room, which had one rusted grate window.

Between the men's and women's cells was a long mesh cage. Hamed said here, jailers pressed prisoners against the mesh and squeezed hot irons against their backs or threw scalding water on them in front of other inmates.