U.S.-led occupation forces are facing stiff resistance in Omm Qasr

Omm Qasr , Iraq , March 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As fierce fighting raged between Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led occupation forces in the Iraqi southern city of Omm Qasr , three U.S. and British occupation soldiers were killed Sunday, March 23, Abu Dhabi television reported.

The U.S. Marines in the city came under a volley of gunfire from the Iraqi troops in this strategic city, Al-Jazeera correspondent in the city said, adding that fire exchange between both sides lasted for half an hour.

The totally unexpected tough resistance by the Iraqi troops forced the occupation forces to call in aerial bombing help and tank reinforcements to break the staunch will of the Iraqi fighters, according to al-Jazeera.

The correspondent added that the fierce fighting might signal that Iraqis was trying to restore Omm Qasr harbor.

For his part, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said the Iraqi resistance in Omm Qasr set itself up as a paradigm of resistance nation-wide.

“The Iraqi fighters will teach the invaders a lesson they would never forget,” al-Jazeera quoted Ramadan as telling a press conference.

On Saturday, the occupation command reported that their forces were totally in control of Omm Qasr and added that they encountered no resistance.

In Mosul , al-Jazeera correspondent in the city said air raid sirens sounded at about 0520 GMT and that bombing could be heard on the outskirts of the city.

Two hours earlier, the all-news Arabic channel reported explosions in the east of Mosul in the direction of Kirkuk and from the west, toward the Syrian border. It also reported other explosions in and around Mosul at 2215 GMT.

The exact location of the blasts was unclear. A leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of two factions which have controlled most of northern Iraq since the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, said Saturday that U.S.-British bombing hit an Iraqi presidential palace in Mosul , as well as the main air base in the oil city of Kirkuk .

Al-Jazeera also reported fierce resistance from the Iraqi side in and around al-Fao Peninsula , on which British Royal Marines claimed Friday, March 21, that they established a beachhead.

The U.S. military also claimed Saturday that their troops have moved beyond the city of Nasiriya , after taking control of two key crossing points on the Euphrates River and the nearby airfield of Tallill.