Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=04/06/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ/RESPONSE (L)

NUMBER=2-301834

BYLINE=GREG LAMOTTE

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Western journalists, including V-O-A's Alisha Ryu, are at the Baghdad International Airport and report it is firmly in coalition control. But in Central Baghdad, Iraq's Information Minister continues to claim that Iraqi forces hold the airport. V-O-A's Greg LaMotte in Cairo monitored the latest broadcast from Iraq.

TEXT: Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told reporters in Baghdad that Iraqi troops forced the coalition to retreat from the airport on Saturday. He said Iraqi artillery forced the coalition soldiers back, but he claims small units returned with video equipment to shoot images to support their claim to control the airport.

/// AL-SAHAF ACT ///

When we stopped pounding, then they pushed forward some of the units, in certain periods of time, to the front to the area of Saddam International Airport only for the sake of propaganda, only to show that they are in the airport area.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. al-Sahaf said those units were, again, pushed back and said Iraqi troops maintain control of the airport.

Western reporters, including V-O-A's Alisha Ryu, are at the airport and report coalition forces are in firm control, and are working to secure the area around the huge facility.

They also report clean up efforts are underway to prepare the airport's runways for use so fresh coalition supplies and troops can be flown in.

At the Baghdad news conference, Mr. al-Sahaf acknowledged that Baghdad has been experiencing power outages, which he blamed on coalition bombing raids. But he said power is being restored.

He also disputed U-S claims that several-thousand Iraqis have surrendered.

Mr. Al-Sahaf's statements have come under more and more scrutiny in recent days, as large numbers of coalition troops, with independent news reporters, have entered the airport and even made an incursion into central Baghdad on Saturday.

Last Thursday, Mr. al-Sahaf told reporters coalition forces were not within, as he put it, 100-miles of Baghdad. One-day later he was acknowledging that coalition forces were battling for control of the airport, just a few-kilometers from downtown Baghdad. (SIGNED)

NEB/GL/AWP/RAE