BAGHDAD, April 1 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) - Iraqi forces thwarted a landing attempt by British forces near the strategic city of Mosul in northern Iraq, and killed many of the invaders, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf boasted Tuesday, April 1.

"The British force which had been dropped there has been eliminated mostly. Only a few managed to flee by helicopter," Sahhaf confirmed in his daily briefing to reporters on the war, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He said the British landing took place in the Baaj district west of Mosul, but did not say when it happened.

Mosul, some 450 kilometers north of Baghdad, has been the target of repeated air strikes by Anglo-American warplanes as the two allies attempt to break its defenses to open a second front in the north.

Sahhaf said the Iraqi fighters, including Saddam Fedayeen, who attacked the British landing captured "most of their equipment, their weapons, their armored cars and vehicles."

"It is a complete defeat for the first military drop in the north. And amazingly, the Americans had pushed the British to do that, as if it was an experiment to be implemented on the British to see what are the results.

"The results were very tragic for the British," he underlined, without saying exactly how many British soldiers were killed.

Commenting, British spokeswoman Lieutenant Commander Emma Thomas said "We're investigating it but we do not have anything that we can comment on at the moment."

The Arabic satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, for its part, reported the landing took place overnight Sunday.

On Tuesday, it broadcast images of locals parading weapons and ammunition, as well as military vehicles, apparently belonging to British forces.

Some 1,000 troops from the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade have parachuted into Kurdish-held territory in the northern Iraq, while another 1,000 special forces have been deployed in the region.

Sahhaf also said that "fierce battles" had taken place between British troops and Iraqi forces in the southern town of Abu al-Khasib, near the country's second city of Basra.

"They inflicted high casualties on the British troops there and the corpses of the enemy are still there on the battleground," he said.

Thomas said that the last report received indicated that 19 British troops were injured when they seized control of the town in recent days.

"It's over now ... Unless there's some action that's just happened I'm not sure what he (Sahhaf) is referring to," she claimed.

The British attacked outlying areas of Basra on Monday, March 31, but were awaiting reinforcements before any drive into the town centre, which has been defended by Iraqi fighters.

The minister also said that Iraqi forces had downed a U.S. helicopter on the outskirts of Basra.

U.S. troops were "confronted by a mechanized Iraqi unit, then the American column retreated. Then the Iraqi side shot down one helicopter," Sahhaf added.