Two of several Iraqis killed in An-Najaf

AN-NAJAF, Iraq, March 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. occupation troops backed by tanks killed 650 Iraqis in the central town of An-Najaf, a U.S. officer boasted Wednesday, March 26, reporting what appeared to be the most lopsided victory of the Iraq war so far.

About 200 of the deaths were reported around a storage depot that has come under scrutiny as a possible chemical weapons factory, claimed Major John Altman, intelligence officer of the Third Infantry Division's First Brigade.

He said there were no U.S. casualties in fighting around the Shiite Muslim center near where they massed for a decisive push towards Baghdad, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"An estimated 650 Iraqis were killed over the last 24 hours in An-Najaf area," Altman said, while U.S. officials in Washington earlier put the Iraqi death toll at between 150 and 300.

He said the dead included Fedayeen and fighters of the ruling Baath Party who battled with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) against U.S. Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.

Some 250 Iraqis were killed when the First Brigade seized a bridge north of An-Najaf, located 120 kilometers south of Baghdad, Altman said.

Another 200 were killed near the storage depot west of An-Najaf and the rest in various other spots.

Altman said 300 Iraqis were taken prisoner and about 100 fled, some perhaps to take up positions as snipers.

A Pentagon official said a U.S. tank was disabled by grenade fire in the fighting and two other vehicles of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment were damaged in the firefight.

Elements of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment engaged the Iraqis after coming under RPG fire that damaged some U.S. equipment, said the official, who asked not to be named.

Altman said the Iraqis were attempting to reinforce An-Najaf with thousands of elite Republican Guard troops from the town of Karbala, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) to the north.

In another serious development of the war, Anglo-American warplanes carried out an air strike over the northern Iraqi city of Mosul early Wednesday, the Al-Jazeera satellite news channel reported.

Air raid sirens went off shortly before the warplanes were heard over the city, followed by at least eight explosions, Al-Jazeera's correspondent in Mosul said. No plumes of smoke were spotted and the targets were unknown.

Mosul was hit by U.S.-led bombing for three days starting Saturday, March 22, according to reports from the scene.

One of the targets has been a palace compound belonging to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

But it was spared on Tuesday, March 25, as heavy rains pounded the city of two million residents.

The skies cleared on Wednesday in Mosul, a city on the River Tigris facing the ruins of ancient Niniveh which has a substantial Kurdish population.

In another development, Baghdad on Wednesday charged the advancing U.S.-British forces of kidnapping Iraqi civilians in embattled southern parts of the country in order to portray them as prisoners of war.

"They are grouping civilians in certain areas through which they are passing, particularly in Umm Qasr and the suburbs of the city of Basra, in order to present them as prisoners of war," an army spokesman said.

He accused the Anglo-American invaders of deception by "telling world public opinion that they have captured soldiers".

"We hold the United States and Britain fully responsible for violating international laws and agreements by kidnapping civilians, tying them up and considering them prisoners of war," he was quoted as saying by the state INA news agency.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf made a similar accusation last week, denying that any Iraqi soldiers had surrendered to the invading troops, as shown on TV stations.

"They are not Iraqi soldiers and we say that they do not form part of the Iraqi armed forces," he told reporters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed Tuesday that U.S.-led forces were holding more than 3,500 prisoners of war in Iraq.

U.S. Marines on Tuesday sustained heavy Iraqi fire but managed to cross the Euphrates River at Nasiriyah on their way north to Baghdad.

U.S. officers said Wednesday that the Nasiriyah remained unsecured and that Marines were still encountering stiff Iraqi resistance.