Iraqis chanting "Long live Saddam Hussein" crowded around a destroyed US tank on a highway leading south out of Baghdad where Iraqi officers said four US soldiers were killed.
Journalists were today taken by Iraqi officials to the site of what they said was a battle on Saturday about 15 miles from the city centre, on the highway to Mahmoudiya south of Baghdad.
"Yesterday morning, eight US tanks tried to enter Baghdad coming from the direction of Mahmoudiya and we confronted them and we destroyed all of them, killing four US soldiers," Iraqi Brigadier Mohammed Jasim told journalists at the site.
The tank was gutted by fire and ammunition belts were scattered on the ground.
Iraqi officers said the other seven US tanks had been destroyed and removed from the battlefield. This correspondent saw six or seven burnt Iraqi vehicles at the site, including several military vehicles.
By contrast, the United States said that it sent tanks through the heart of Baghdad on Saturday.
US military sources said that four US soldiers were wounded, one tank was damaged by rocket propelled grenades and another had to be abandoned in Baghdad because of mechanical failure.
Dozens of Iraqi civilians crowded around the journalists and the tank, shouting anti-American slogans such as "Down, down Bush" and "Long live Saddam Hussein".
Residents in the area who were there when the battle took place said that there were a lot of air raids before US tanks arrived in the scene.
Signs of heavy bombardment were evident in the demolished houses and big holes in concrete walls dotting the government buildings and residential houses along the Mahmoudiya highway.
One Iraqi resident said he saw US warplanes raiding their own tank in an apparent bid to prevent the Iraqis from using it.
"We haven't lost even any soldier from this battle," another Iraqi army officer said.
A US military spokesman at war headquarters in Qatar said that about 2,000 Iraqi fighters had died since US troops reached the outskirts of Baghdad in recent days.
About 100 journalists fled the scene when they heard the roaring of US warplanes overhead and apparent warning shots.