A defiant President Saddam Hussein on Monday hailed tough Iraqi resistance against a five-day-old US and British onslaught to get rid of him. More bombs shook Baghdad before and after the Iraqi leader’s address, in which he paid tribute to Iraqi fighters who have stalled forces trying to sweep north to the capital. ‘‘The enemy is trapped in the sacred land of Iraq. brave fighters, hit your enemy with all your strength,’’ Saddam declared. He said Iraq had inflicted serious losses on the invaders and praised commanders fighting recent battles. ‘‘Be patient, victory is coming,’’ he told his people. Deputy PM Tariq Aziz later said Saddam was in full control of his army and country. Shortly after Saddam spoke, Iraq said it had shot down two US Apache helicopters. A US official confirmed one had been lost. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Coalition advance units were near Karbala, 90 km south of Baghdad, and predicted that a critical battle was fast approaching. ‘‘It’s a little way from there that they will encounter the Medina Division of the Republican Guard who are defending the route to Baghdad. This will be a crucial moment,’’ Blair told Parliament. At the Sayliya Camp in Qatar, General Tommy Franks, said his forces had made rapid progress in their drive to Baghdad. He said Republican Guard units defending Saddam’s power base in and around Baghdad had been hit and would be hit again. He said the tenacity of some Iraqi units — which had produced what he called ‘‘some terrific firefights’’— had not come as a surprise. British marines moved into the southern deep-water port of Umm Qasr, vital for food imports, hoping their experience of Northern Ireland’s urban guerrilla warfare would help. US Marine Captain Rick Crevier said about 100 fidayeen militia, infantry, Baath Party militiamen and Republican Guards were still holding out in Umm Qasr — three days after US and British forces first said they had secured the port. The Iraqi fightback has been sharpest in the southern city of Nassiriya, where two key bridges span the Euphrates river. Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire said US Marines were still bogged down there. In the latest blow in the propaganda war, Iraqi TV showed what it called a downed ‘‘enemy’’ helicopter south of Baghdad. The black Apache, which appeared intact, was still armed with missiles bearing US markings. Iraqis waving rifles surrounded the aircraft near the city of Karbala, 110 km south-west of Baghdad. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said Iraq had shot down two Apaches and might put their pilots on show. Sahaf said US-led forces had killed 62 people in the last 24 hours, including 30 in the town of Babel, south of Baghdad, and 14 in Basra. More than 400 had been wounded, nearly half of them in the Iraqi capital. Iraq put five US captives on TV and showed up to eight bloodied corpses of what it said were US soldiers killed in Nassiriya. A British soldier was killed in Al Zubayr, its first actual combat casualty. In Damascus, Syrian news agency said a missile fired by a US jet had hit a bus carrying Syrians returning from Iraq, killing five and wounding at least 10. (Reuters)
