As the U.S.-led forces intensified their bombardment of Baghdad, Iraqis vowed stiff resistance

DOHA, March 23 (IslamOnlione.net & News Agencies) – Appearing on Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel, an Iraqi commander near the southern city of Basra said Sunday, March 23, that his division, which Washington earlier claimed had surrendered, would continue to resist U.S. and British forces.

"I am with my men in Basra, we continue to defend the people and riches of the town," Colonel Khaled al-Hashemi, commander of the 51st Mechanized Division, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted the satellite television channel Al-Jazeera as saying.

"We have made sacrifices within the division to defend our sacred places and our honor," he said without giving any other details.

The Pentagon claimed Friday, March 21, his division had surrendered to coalition forces, the first division-sized unit to do so since the start of a U.S.-led ground offensive. Baghdad immediately denied the claim.

Hashemi accused Washington of lying, saying it was part of the psychological warfare being put out by enemy forces.

No Chemical Weapons Yet: Myers

Meanwhile, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers said Sunday that his forces have not found banned chemical, biological or nuclear weapons so far during their incursion into Iraq.

"To my knowledge, we have not," Myers told ABC television.

British Reporter Killed

In another related development, British TV news reporter Terry Lloyd is believed to have been killed in southern Iraq, his employer ITN television said Sunday.

"We have received sufficient evidence to believe that ITV news correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed in an incident on the southern Iraq war front yesterday (Saturday)," ITN said in a statement.

"We believe his body to be in Basra hospital, which is still under Iraqi control.

"Two members of his team, Fred Nerac and Hussein Osman, are still missing and ITN so far has no information on their whereabouts or condition," the statement said.

U.S. and British forces have now sustained an officially confirmed 23 fatalities since the start of the war on Iraq early Thursday March 20.

Two of the 23, U.S. marines, were reported by command headquarters to have died in combat on Friday.

Twelve servicemen, eight from Britain and four from the United States, were killed in a helicopter accident in Kuwait March 21.

The next day, two Royal Navy helicopters collided over the northern Gulf, killing all seven crewmen, including one American.

In addition, a U.S. soldier died in Kuwait early Sunday in a grenade attack attributed to a fellow soldier.

The two crew of a British Royal Air Force Tornado fighter were listed as missing Sunday after they were hit by a U.S. Patriot missile.

A U.S. soldier guarding grenades at a camp in Kuwait killed one colleague and wounded 12 others Sunday when he lobbed explosives into tents of sleeping officers, officials and witnesses said.