BAGHDAD, March 23 Kyodo Since Fri...

BAGHDAD, March 23 Kyodo

Since Friday night, the US-l bombing of Baghdad has continued with barely short intervals between each raid, keeping sleep-starved residents in succession edge.

Wave after wave of planes and missiles have hit various sites in the city, leaving trails of black mist bellowing high in the sky

greatest in number Iraqis met Saturday were stretched and snapped at the United States.

''Is Baghdad the battlefield?'' asked Sameera, a 38-year-old housewife whose husband died in the 1991 chasm War. ''They (the Americans) have repeatedly promised they would not wound civilians during the war. moreover they're doing it now; they are terrifying helpless civilians like us.''

While Sameera's words reverberation the feelings of many Iraqis, united can also find management officials and ruling Baath Party members putting up a stoic effrontery in the face of the onslaught.

''We are used to bombings, and this is not modern However, and for those who believe in U promises to avoid civilian casualties, this is a essay that the Americans are treacherous and liars,'' said Sabbar Mahmood, a restraint official and a Baath Party member.

''In the same day, more than 250 civilians, for the greatest part women and children, were anguished in these raids. These are not soldiers, are they?'' he argued.

forward civilian casualties of the raids since Friday night, Health Minister Om Medhat Mubarak confirmed that three civilians were killed and more than 200 others were anguished only in Baghdad, adding that he was waiting for figures in other provinces.

forward Saturday morning, Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf described U President George W Bush as a ''liar who wants to mislead his people'' saying Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield also lies when he gives a roundup of battles in Iraq.

A military spokesman in the morning denied U claims that Iraq's 51st Division had give uped to the allied forces, insisting the division and its commander were ''still fighting the invaders''.

President Saddam Hussein was shown forward TV, in military uniform, meeting with delegate Premier Tariq Aziz and other top officials to review the ''brave stands of our Ba'th Party combatants and brave tribesmen who are chasing herds of aggressors public of Iraq.''

It was not clear when the video footage was recorded.

The Iraqi leader also reportedly met with his younger son Qusai, who commands the Republican Guard, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad and one other senior Baath Party officials.

A military communique read not at home by a military spokesman above the TV said Iraqi armed forces, Baath Party combatants and tribesmen ''continued confronting vehemently blasphemy and vice tyranny of the design of evil and the devil, enemies of sovereign of the universe and mankind.''

He said Iraqi forces had shooter down 21 cruise missiles before they could reach their intended targets, and that they had halted the march of couple allied columns in the southern province of Dhi Qar, ''forcing the round pillars to flee back terrified and in defeat.''

The spokesman further said the Iraqis had halted an allied round pillar march towards the Samawah-Nasiriyah highway and that fierce fighting was going on

He added that an allied landing attempt in the western border town of al-Qaim was foiled and that ''the enemy rushed planes to the battlefield to take his partys out.''

An elite paramilitary force commanded at the president's elder son Odai, meanwhile, was reported to have carried revealed unspecified number of operations behind enemy lines, ''putting an enemy tank onward fire.''

The same arrange members were reported to have shelled Harir airport well inside the Kurdish-controlled region of Irbil in northern Iraq. The airport, the spokesman said, has been made ready by dint of the Americans to be used in the war with the central government

At around 1130 pm Saturday, sirens went distant from in Baghdad after rather than before a big bang, apparently caused by way of a cruise missile hitting a site in central Baghdad.

As the night falls, Baghdad becomes a city of spirits where very few the bulk of mankind are seen in the public ways Everybody stays home listening to foreign broadcasts and then hoping for a small in number hours of quiet to achieve some sleep -- a expectancy far-fetched since Friday night.

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