Advancing US forces on alert after Iraqi threat

US forces at the international airport outside Baghdad were on alert last night to meet an Iraqi threat to carry out unspecified…

US forces at the international airport outside Baghdad were on alert last night to meet an Iraqi threat to carry out unspecified attacks on them involving "some kind of martyrdom", writes Deagláde Bréadún in Doha.

Claiming the US troops were "isolated", Iraq's Information Minister warned at a news conference yesterday: "Tonight we will carry out something that is not conventional against them, not military. It will be a great example to them."

Mr Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf gave no details of the intended attacks except to say, "I mean some kind of martyrdom, and there are very many new ways which we are going to carry out." He recalled the French defeat at the hands of Vietnamese forces in the Battle of Dienbienphu in 1954.

Since he ruled out the use of unconventional weapons, it was not clear whether the threat was mere bluster or perhaps involved the use of suicide bombers, who have already struck twice at Coalition forces over the past week. Failure to mount a serious attack would further undermine the credibility of the Iraqi leadership.

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Meanwhile US Central Command (Centcom) was so confident of its hold on the airport a spokesman announced it was being given a new name. Instead of Saddam International Airport, it would now be called Baghdad International Airport, Brig Gen Vincent Brooks told a news conference at Centcom headquarters in the capital of Qatar.

He said there could still be Iraqi forces in underground bunkers: "This is an ongoing process, we found that there are underground facilities at this airport, for example. Those require clearance."

US commanders said the 1,500 members of the 3rd Infantry Division at the airport would be reinforced under cover of darkness by hundreds of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division and the 94th battalion, an engineering unit.

A huge armoured column of US marines approached the industrial area outside the Iraqi capital yesterday, four miles from the city's limits, the other part of a two-prong advance that has already taken most of the airport to the west of the city. But stiff resistance from Iraqi paramilitaries was reported, with a number of US casualties.

Two US soldiers were killed yesterday as troops battled to take control of the airport while a third was killed in an accident after coming under fire on their approach to the facility, a military spokesman said.

Another US soldier was killed on Thursday alongside Washington Post columnist Michael Kelly when their vehicle plunged into a canal while evading Iraqi fire on the approach to Baghdad's main airport.

US officers said they have found thousands of boxes containing vials of white powder and liquid at a "suspicious site" near Latifiya south of Baghdad, together with what may be nerve agent antidote supplies.

There appeared to be an emerging strategy of isolating Baghdad, prior to a final assault. It was thought likely air and artillery attacks and forays by special forces would continue.

Asked about the likely level of resistance by the Iraqis in the capital, Brig Gen Brooks said the fighting was not by any means over. "We still anticipate that special Republican Guard forces are operating from within Baghdad or on the outskirts of Baghdad," he said.

Brig Gen Brooks still expected a considerable amount of conflict: "The fighting is not complete by any stretch of the imagination."

In the latest suicide bombing, three Coalition soldiers died at a checkpoint near Haditha Dam, northwest of Baghdad. A pregnant woman reportedly emerged from a vehicle, screaming in fear. The car then exploded, killing the soldiers, the woman and the driver of the vehicle.

As doubts persisted about the state of President Saddam's health or whether he was even still alive, the Iraqi leader appeared on television and called on his people to resist Coalition forces and "remain true to your principles, your faith and your honour".

Iraqi TV later showed footage of what it said was President Saddam Hussein visiting residential areas in Baghdad yesterday. The Iraqi leader was mobbed by cheering, chanting Iraqis. Some of them kissed him on his cheeks and hands, and he held up a small child.