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The following are the latest developments relating to the Iraq war:
WASHINGTON
US President George W. Bush on Saturday called Russian President Vladimir Putin and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to discuss issues including the ongoing war in Iraq, the White House said.
It said in a statement that the calls to Putin and Aznar "are part of an ongoing series of calls between President Bush and world leaders involving a variety of matters, including Iraq."
After the phone calls, Bush held a teleconference with members of his "war council" in Camp David, Maryland, where the US president is spending the weekend.
US President George W. Bush said on Saturday that days of both Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his loyalists were numbered.
"Village by village, city by city, liberation is coming," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
"As the vise tightens on the Iraqi regime, some of our enemies have chosen to fill their final days with acts of cowardice and murder," he said.
CAIRO
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on Saturday urged Arabs to defend themselves, saying the Arab nation has huge potentials with which it can defend itself.
According to Egypt's official MENA news agency, Sabri made the call in a short statement to the Egyptian TV.
Sabri stressed in the statement that the Arab nation is entitled to use portion of its potentials to defend its dignity and legitimate rights.
Arab states have relations with the world countries and can use them to press for an end to the aggression on Iraq and the Palestinians as well as to heard off American threats to other Arab states, the Iraqi official said.
Iraqi forces and US-led coalition troops are engaging in a fierce fighting in Al-Yousuffia area, west of Saddam International Airport, Al-Arabia satellite channel reported late Saturday.
The coalition troops were running out of ammunition and were unable to pull out from the outskirts of Baghdad after leaving the airport, according to the Dubai-based TV channel.
The US-led coalition warplanes bombarded targets in central Baghdad Saturday night with several large explosions heard, CNN reported.
The bombarded area is only several hundred meters away from the Palestine Hotel, where dozens of foreign journalists are staying.
No further details about the fresh air strikes are available at the moment.
The latest air raids came amid contrasting reports by the United States and Iraq about the military actions in and around Baghdad.
Some 600 Arab volunteers in Iraq battling the US-British forces were killed when their camp was bombed near the central Iraqi town of Kut, Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel reported Saturday.
According to Iraqi officials, about 6,000 Arab volunteers have arrived in the country in support of Iraqi resistance. Many of the volunteers are "martyrs" ready to explode themselves and aggressors, Iraqi officials say.
No further details were available about the mass killing.
BAGHDAD
The Iraqi forces inflicted heavy losses on the US-led coalition troops on Saturday, the military said in a statement broadcast by Iraqi TV.
The Iraqi forces destroyed 8 tanks, 11 armored personnel carriers and shot down one fighter jet and one helicopter, said the statement.
Two strong explosions were heard near the Miridiene Hotel in central Baghdad at 0:10 (2010GMT) on Sunday, a Xinhua reporter said.
Miridiene was a French hotel in Baghdad, where hosted a number of foreign journalists, Subhy Haddad said.
The powerful bombs were believed to have been dropped by B-52 heavy bombers, he said.
The latest attack came after three-hour suspension of air strikes by the US-led coalition forces, Haddad added.
Iraqi TV late Saturday night aired pictures of President Saddam Hussein chairing a meeting attended by his two sons and senior military officers.
A smiling Saddam, wearing military fatigues, sat in a room with his two sons Qusay and Uday near him.
The Iraqi TV did not say when or where the meeting had been held.
On Friday, Iraqi TV also showed footage of Saddam visiting some residential sites hit by US bombs and missiles in the capital.
Iraqi army forces launched a counter-attack on US special forces and Kurdish Peshmerga troops east of Mosul Saturday, Al Jazeera Satellite TV Channel reported.
The Iraqis used tanks and heavy artillery to block the advance of the US forces to Mosul, forcing them to abandon positions, which they had occupied Friday on the road to Mosul, the report said.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahaf said late Saturday at least 300 US soldiers have been killed in the battle at Saddam International Airport.
He said in an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV that the airport was still unsafe so he could not show reporters around the area at the moment.
The two sides engaged in war also clashed verbally about the situation of the Baghdad airport, with US military claiming their capture of the airport and the rival Iraqi side reaffirming "full control" of the icon airport.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahaf on Saturday denied reports that US troops have entered a Baghdad district.
He said in an interview with Qatar's Al Jazeera television the footage aired by CNN was not shot from any district in Baghdad.
Rather, he said, this footage was taken from a district called "Abu Ghurrib", which is located outside the fences of Saddam International Airport.
"We killed the Americans and drove them out of the airport," hesaid, adding that these pictures were taken from an area 30 to 40 km away from Baghdad.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein issued a message on Saturday and urged the Iraqi army and people to intensify the fight against US-led coalition troops and "exhaust" them.
In a message delivered by Iraq's Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf on a television program, Saddam told the Iraqi armed forces and ordinary citizens to step up attacks to defeat their enemies.
MOSCOW
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder held phone talks on Saturday to discuss their upcoming summit next week.
Preparations for the summit scheduled for April 11-12 in St. Petersburg, Russia is the main topic of the telephone conversation between the two leaders, the Kremlin press service said in a statement.
Earlier, the press service said that Putin held telephone talks with his US and French counterparts on Saturday to discuss the Iraqi crisis.
GENEVA
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Saturday that hospitals in Baghdad were finding it increasingly difficult for them to cope with the continuing flooding of war-injured patients.
"Hospital staff is stretched to the limits by the pretty much uninterrupted flow of wounded at the hospitals," ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said.
DOHA
Fire broke out at US As Siliyah base being used as US Central Command forward post in Qatar on Saturday, Abu Dhabi TV reported.
Loud sirens sounded in the headquarters where over 100 foreign reporters covering the news briefing held by Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart were evacuated immediately, Xinhua correspondents reported.
Fire brigades rushed to the scene to extinguish the fire, Abu Dhabi TV said without elaborating the cause of the blaze.
(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2003)
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