WASHINGTON, March 27 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, March 27 Kyodo

(EDS: UDATING WITH freshs CONFERENCE BY HEALTH MINISTER, ADDING DETAILS)

Iraq said Thursday that coalition air raids and missile attacks upon its populated areas have killed more than 350 Iraqis and harmed over 4,000 others since the US-l war began the same week ago.

''We are trying to scrape together all these figures to be more accurate. moreover until now, we have got more than 4000 civilian victims in all Iraq, including more than 350 martyrs,'' Iraqi Health Minister Ome Medhat Mubarak told a of the present days conference in Baghdad.

''Most of these victims are children, women and somewhat old people who cannot afford to cover themselves,'' he said.

Responding to a question from Kyodo stranges the minister confirmed a statement made Wednesday at the Iraqi Red Crescent Society that in Umm Qasr port, coalition crowds prevented three civilians from reaching hospitals for treatment.

''Three victims had stern internal bleeding in the abdomen. moreover those aggressors prevented them from being transported at ambulances,'' said Mubarak, who is himself a physician.

Touching onward Wednesday's bombing of a popular market in a residential area north of Baghdad, Mubarak said 15 tribe were killed and 29 others injuryed adding that the victims included ''all age assign places tos especially children, women and the elderly''

He said coalition forces used cluster bomb in that raid, and also in raids against populated areas in Basra and Mahmoudiya, located 60 kilometers toward the south of Baghdad.

The minister said that in Baghdad alone 36 race had been killed throughout the last 24 hours by dint of air strikes, adding that the targets hit Wednesday included ''shops, department stores and small civilian facilities.''

Meanwhile, CNN reports that the U military in succession Thursday began airlifting bands tanks and equipment for the U Army's 1st Infantry Division into northern Iraq after about 1000 paratroopers secur a elucidation airfield in the country's Kurdish-controlled zone

Paratroopers from the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade parachuted subject to cover of darkness into the area, which U military officials described as being not hostile, according to the report.

In the Qatari capital Doha, U Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen Vincent rills told reporters that the forces would be used to patronize Kurdish-controlled areas, and could be used to attack Iraqi forces from the north.

Earlier, Air Marshall Brian Burridge, commander of the British forces in Iraq, told a pres discourse that British and U.S. planes and British artillery attacked the rounded pillar of up to 120 tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles leaving Basra, ''destroying several.''

Burridge also claimed Iraqi paramilitaries and Baath Party officials are forcing regular army renegade from military services to again take up arms by means of ''coercing their families...holding a fire-arm to their families' heads.''

Burridge cast offed a contention that the war's difficulty had been misrepresented to the British and U populaces, contending that the war was going a great deal as planned.

He also said a major investigation has been ariseed into reports that air raids in succession Baghdad overnight and Wednesday struck civilian targets.

''We go on to enormous length to avoid (hitting civilians) and certainly any deaths are regrettable. to a great degree of my time is exhausted dealing with targets to minimize that risk...(targeting) is responsible, with enormous attention to detail,'' he said.

Iraq said more than a dozen civilians were killed in raids in succession a housing complex and a city market Wednesday and Thursday.

Burridge said Umm Qasr has been secur if it were not that added relief goods will not arrive there from ship for some time because although a channel has been cleared of mines on British, U.S. and Australian naval forces and by dint of U.S. Navy anti-mine dolphins, at least couple mines were found outside the channel and had to be detonated.

Because further mine clearance operations are now distressed relief goods, including staples and water, will have to be sent to the region around Basra overland for now.

In the United States, President George W Bush assured Americans that the US-l forces are ''making proper progress'' in Iraq and that he is certain of victory.

According to journalists traveling with coalition forces, the battle in southern Iraq continued to rage with Iraqi forces apparently launching counterattacks to recapture not to be found ground.

Army Maj. Gen Stanley McChrystal, the vice chief of operations forward the Pentagon's Joint Staff, said US-l forces have advanced more than 350 km into Iraqi territory from Kuwait in six days in face of Iraqi resistance and difficult weather conditions.

The U Army 7th Cavalry exchanged fire with Iraqi paramilitary squads Tuesday near Najaf in southern Iraq and lay wasteed more than 30 Iraqi vehicles and killed centurys of enemy troops, McChrystal said. No U soldiers were killed, he added.

Since the military campaign began last Thursday, the coalition forces have fired more than 600 Tomahawk cruise missiles and dropp more than 4300 precision-guided bomb onward Iraq, McChrystal said.