Dubai: The US forces on April 6 claimed to have encircled Baghdad in what appeared
to be a final push on Saddam Hussein's seat of power, even as Iraq imposed a 12-hour
night time ban on travel to and from the capital due to position its troops to
confront the invaders.
In Basra, the British forces staged their largest incursion and engaged in bloody
battles with Iraqi soldiers for control of the strategic Southern port city.
As US marines fought their way to Tigris river, North of Baghdad claiming to have
completed their portion of encirclement of the capital, Iraqi information Minister
Mohmmad Saeed al-Sahhaf announced a 12 hour night ban starting 6.00 pm every evening
on movement of people "to prepare our movements and our work to confront the enemy
and crush him."
He also claimed that 50 enemy soldiers had been killed in fighting around the Saddam
International Airport on the outskirts of Baghdad. Iraqi troops destroyed six enemy
tanks and 10 others in the fight.
Journalists in Baghdad were shown the wreckage of a US Abrams tank on the outskirts
of the capital, which Iraqi officials said was knocked out in intense fighting that
left four American dead on April 5.
Qatar-Based US Central Command, however, said between 2000 and 3000 Iraqi soldiers
were killed in yesterday's 40 km brief incursion by the American troops in Southern
Baghdad.
PTI
