http://www.itar-tass.com/different/oper_lenta/english/iraq/256979.html
Combat operations underway 400 km south of Baghdad

02.04.2003

By Dmitry Vinitsky

MOSCOW, April 2 (Itar-Tass) - Combat operations are underway 400 kilometers south of Baghdad, Iraq's ambassador in Moscow, Abbas Khalaf told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday.

"Nassiriyah, the site of the worst fighting, is raging is 375 kilometers away from Baghdad. The Americans have claimed they have established control of Umm Qasr four times. This means they will claim 50 times they have seized Baghdad," he said.

The Iraqi diplomat said such propaganda was aimed at bolstering the morale of U.S. and British troops, who have to murder Iraqi civilians.

"The Americans have been using a new strategy, that of taking civilians prisoner to free Iraq of the Iraqis," Khalaf said.

About U.S. claims of establishing control of some parts of Iraq the Iraqi ambassador said "American military advisers must be thinking there are no cities in Iraq, but only they desert they control."

"This is a great victory, it must have been won in order to reclaim the Iraqi desert areas," Khalaf said.

According to U.S. military sources fighting is underway 80-100 kilometers South of Baghdad.