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Iraq TV shows 'US pilots'; Bush seeks cash
25/03/2003 08:41 - (SA)
Baghdad - Iraqi state television showed footage of two men it said were pilots of a downed US Apache helicopter on Monday, as Saddam Hussein's regime vowed he was still firmly in control and would fight to the end.
The second straight night of POW broadcasts came as intense bombing raids pounded areas south of Baghdad, hitting with such force that the blasts could be heard in the centre of the Iraqi capital.
Occasional heavy bombardment also hit Baghdad itself, where deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz gave a sarcasm-laced press conference that heaped scorn on US and British claims of rapid progress in their war to topple Saddam from power.
In Washington, Democratic senator Robert Byrd said President George W Bush will ask congress for about $63bn to pay for the Iraq war and other extra security costs.
The senator made the estimate after congressional leaders met the president to discuss a supplemental budget for the war.
He said the size of the total supplemental budget request was likely to reach $75bn, including $63bn to pay for the war, $8bn for Iraq's post-war reconstruction and $4bn for boosting homeland security in the United States.
Earlier, a senior US defence official said the Pentagon will ask Congress to approve $62.6bn in funding to cover the cost of a short war against Iraq. That amount will be part of the overall request.
Coercive diplomacy
"We assume a relative short, highly intense period of conflict," said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon's request for emergency supplemental funding would provide $30.3bn for "coercive diplomacy," $13.1bn for the "major conflict phase," $12bn for the "transitional and stability phase," and $7.2bn for "reconstitution".
Iraqi state television showed between four and five minutes of videotape of two men whose Apache attack helicopter it said had been shot down by a farmer in southern Iraq. The men were not heard speaking and did not appear to be injured.
US commanders earlier acknowledged that two Apache pilots were missing in action after an air operation aimed at formations of elite Republican Guards, which the United States says are arrayed to defend the approaches to Baghdad.
The television showed credit and ID cards, including a driver's licence from the US state of Texas. The men, wearing desert-coloured pilot overalls, appeared sombre and slightly nervous.
Iraqi television said they were "prisoners of war" who would be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
The United States blasted Iraq's broadcast of five POWs on Sunday night, and Bush said anyone mistreating US captives would be treated as war criminals.
Sunday night's footage filled many residents in this city - the jewel in the crown of Saddam's power - with pride.
US, UK troops facing tough assault
"Our army is scoring success after success against the world's sole superpower with its mighty military coalition," one taxi driver said. "I was never so proud to be Iraqi."
A senior US officer said on Monday in Washington that Apache attacks had "degraded significantly" a division of the Guard defending the approach to Baghdad.
But in remarks to reporters in the capital, as heavy coalition air bombardment could be heard booming in the nighttime sky, Aziz vowed Saddam still held the reins of power and that US and British troops were facing a tough assault on the city.
"Saddam Hussein is in total control of his country," he said. "Saddam Hussein is in total control of his armed forces and his people, and the (ruling) Baath party .... We are all with him."
He said no troops from the Republican Guard had even taken part in the four days of bloody battles with coalition troops at the southern port of Umm Qasr.
"If the resistance in Umm Qasr took all this time and inflicted such casualties, you can imagine what the coming days will be," he said.
Asked what coalition forces could expect from a battle in Baghdad, Aziz snarled at US claims that their soldiers would be met with applause and cheers from Iraqis happy that the United States had come to "liberate" them from Saddam.
"They will be met with the best music and the finest flowers in all of Iraq," he said. "They will be welcomed in the same way as they are welcomed in Umm Qasr."
He ridiculed Western reports that Saddam and other members of the leadership might have been injured or killed in the pinpoint strikes that marked the beginning of the US assault on Iraq on Thursday.
"All the members of the Iraqi leadership...are in good shape, working courageously, effectively, according to the plan," Aziz said.
100 000 children in Basra at risk of disease
Earlier, state television showed a uniformed Saddam addressing the nation for the second time since the war began last week. It was not clear when the footage was broadcast, and Britain said it believed he had already been wounded.
Five people, including a woman, were killed and at least 28 wounded when a missile fired by allied warplanes hit houses in Al-Azamiyah, a densely populated area of Baghdad, residents there said.
One house was destroyed when the missile struck, residents told an AFP photographer. Casualties had been removed from the area, according to the photographer, who saw piles of rubble.
The Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera reported Basra as well as the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul came under bombardment on Monday.
The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) warned at least 100 000 children in Basra were at risk of disease after water supplies were cut following US-led air strikes.
The northern oil capital of Kirkuk has also been rocked by 24 hours of almost non-stop bombardment, Kurdish sources said.
A US soldier was shot dead on Monday in central Iraq, and comrades chasing after his assailant killed two Iraqis and captured several others, US officers said.
About 40 US and British troops have been killed in the conflict, but the civilian toll is also mounting. A US military spokesperson admitted missiles fired by US forces had hit a bus during an attack on a bridge in Iraq, killing five Syrians returning to their country on Sunday.
Ongoing cooperation, support to Iraqi military forces
Syria, acting on behalf of Arab members of the United Nations, meanwhile said it would seek an emergency meeting of the Security Council in the hope of forcing US troops to leave Iraq.
"We want to stop the aggression against Iraq and the Iraqi people and to withdraw the foreign troops," Syria's ambassador to the UN, Mikhail Wehbe, told reporters.
Bush was also in a dispute with Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged sales by Russian firms of military equipment to Iraq.
The two leaders spoke on Monday. "We are very concerned that there are reports of ongoing cooperation and support to Iraqi military forces," said White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer, who added that Putin promised to "look into" the allegations.
The United States has complained about sales of night-vision goggles, anti-tank weapons, and technology to jam satellite signals that US-led forces use to guide bombs and military aircraft.
Global stocks retreated along with the dollar, while oil prices spiked as investor confidence waned amid signs the war in Iraq may not be as quick or easy as imagined for US-led troops.
Bush plans to host British Prime Minister Tony Blair this week for talks on Iraq and the so-called "roadmap" to peace in the Middle East, a senior US official said on Monday.
"The plan is for Blair to come here this week to meet the president at the White House and maybe Camp David. Iraq and Middle East, the roadmap, are the only things on the agenda," said the official, who declined to be named.
- AFX
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