The Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf has said that "50 enemy soldiers" were killed infighting around the capital's Saddam International Airport.
"Yesterday (Saturday) we attacked the enemy with missiles. Wekilled 50 soldiers in enemy ranks," Sahhaf told a press conferencein Baghdad, referring to US forces who seized control of the airporton Friday.
In a statement broadcast yesterday on Abu Dhabi television, Sahhaf had said he believed more than 300 US troops had been killed in the fighting around the airport.
In Sunday's news conference, Sahhaf also said that Iraqi troopsloyal to President Saddam Hussein destroyed six tanks and damaged 10 others in the fighting around the complex, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of the city centre.
Two Apache attack helicopters were shot down in the Taamin area,south of the capital, he added.
Colonel Will Grimsley, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division'sFirst Brigade, told journalists from the airport that US forces controlled95 percent of the complex and that 5,000 soldiers were deployed onthe site.
AFP