BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, (Reuters):
UNITED STATES President George W. Bush vowed yesterday to wage war for as long as it took to eliminate President Saddam Hussein, as Iraq's Defence Minister said the invaders would have to conquer Baghdad street by street.
Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair conferred against a background of fiercer-than-expected Iraqi resistance which raised the prospect that the fighting might go on for several more weeks.
Speaking to reporters at the presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland, Bush and Blair also called on the United Nations to resume its oil-for-food programme to help meet growing humanitarian needs in Iraq.
As relentless bombing again shook Baghdad setting fires in the city centre, Iraq said the week-long conflict had caused more than 4,000 civilian casualties, including more than 350 dead. There was no independent confirmation of these figures.
The Iraqi armed forces said in a communiqué they had killed nine more troops over the last 24 hours and had destroyed 10 tanks and 13 armoured personnel carriers. The U.S. military did not immediately comment.
The U.S. and Britain launched the war to oust Saddam and take control of his alleged weapons of mass destruction, none of which have yet been found.
According to the latest official count, the two nations have lost a total of 44 troops killed and 12 missing. No reliable estimate of Iraqi military losses is available.
Bush and Blair stressed they would not be deterred by Iraqi resistance, but refused to say how long the war might last. "This isn't a matter of timetable, it's a matter of victory," the U.S. president said. "And the Iraqi people have got to know that. They have got to know that they will be liberated and Saddam Hussein will be removed, no matter how long it takes."
STREET FIGHTING
Iraq's Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed said he expected that U.S.-led forces would manage to encircle Baghdad within five to 10 days but they would then have to face fierce street fighting that could last months.
"We set up our (main) defences in Baghdad. It will be no surprise that in five to 10 days they will be able to encircle all our positions in Baghdad. They have the capability to do so," he told a news conference.
"But they have to come into the city eventually... God willing, Baghdad will be impregnable. We will fight to the end and everywhere. History will record how well Iraqis performed in defence of their capital," Ahmed said.
The prospect of having to take Baghdad house by house and street by street is the biggest nightmare of U.S. military planners. Such an operation could cause high military and civilian casualties.
Blair charged that some captured British soldiers had been executed by the Iraqis and made clear he was resolved to fight on no matter what.
The Washington Post quoted some military sources yesterday as saying the war might last months rather than weeks.
RESISTANCE IN SOUTH
In al-Zubayr, 13 miles (20 km) south of the main southern city of Basra, Reuters correspondents Michael Georgy and Rosalind Russell reported that Iraqi militias, mixing with the local population, were pinning down U.S. and British forces, trapping civilians in the cross-fire. In that town alone, residents said as many as 15 civilians had been killed.
Tanks, which were expected to roll into Basra early in the war, were still bogged down in battles in civilian neighbourhoods with a few Saddam loyalists proving strong enough to hold back the invasion.
U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said there was no point in other nations trying to mediate a cease-fire.
"I have no idea what some country might propose, but there isn't going to be a cease-fire," he said.
As the weather improved in Iraq after two days of blinding sandstorms, U.S. troops that have pushed north from Kuwait toward Baghdad consolidated their supply lines and prepared for major clashes with troops loyal to Saddam.
In the north, 1,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade took over an airfield in Kurdish-controlled territory after one of the biggest combat parachute drops since the Second World War.
"This is the beginning of the northern front," a U.S. defence official said. But military experts said this could take weeks and would require a massive airlift of armour.
The first deliveries of food to southern Iraq provoked chaotic scenes as Iraqis scrambled for supplies. Almost all aid agencies say the south is still too dangerous for civilian relief teams.
In the south, British forces said they had destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks and four troop carriers making the latest of several attempts to break out of Basra.
