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Possible Saddam address: 'Hit them hard'Tapes suggest he may have survived 'decapitation attack'
NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As coalition forces reported significant gains Friday -- seizing Baghdad's international airport in their drive toward the capital -- a TV address, said to be given by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, called on Iraqis to fight U.S. and British troops "with what you have available." Iraqi state television broadcast a message purportedly given by Saddam, in which he said that only a small number of coalition forces had bypassed Iraqi forces around Baghdad and urged Iraqis to "hit them hard." He also praised a farmer, a man Iraqi officials earlier had said shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter. It was the first time that he has referred to an incident that happened after the United States attacked the Iraqi leadership in a so-called decapitation attack on March 19. Later, a number of Arabic-language television networks, including Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and the Lebanese Broadcasting Company, showed a video, said to be Saddam, greeting a crowd of supporters and Iraqi soldiers in the streets of Baghdad. CNN correspondent Nic Robertson said the tape appeared to have been shot on the western outskirts of the city, but it was not clear if the tape was shot recently. Saddam's apparent absence has led some U.S. officials to speculate that he might have been killed in the attack. Also, experts say the Iraqi leader has been known to use body doubles in the past. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said Friday that the U.S. forces at Baghdad's international airport are "an isolated island," and Iraqi troops have "nailed down" or turned back other coalition advances. He said U.S. forces will face "something that is not conventional" Friday night. Sahaf said Iraq will not use weapons of mass destruction against advancing U.S. or British troops, but he threatened widespread use of "martyrdom," and said the action would be "not by military." Airport battleMeanwhile, U.S.-led coalition troops battled Iraqi forces Friday after penetrating the Republican Guard's defensive ring around Baghdad and seizing the airport. Iraqi forces were driven from the airport , which is about 12 miles outside of the Iraqi capital, earlier in the day, but CNN's Walter Rodgers, embedded with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, said that the area was still hostile territory. More than 20 Iraqi tanks have been seen operating between the perimeter of the airport and the 3-7th, which is a few miles away, guarding the flanks of the 3rd Infantry soldiers working to secure the airport. Rodgers said the unit he was with was "under constant fire, and has been for hours and hours." Iraqis had tried to stop the U.S. advance by charging with dump trucks, pickup trucks and buses filled with Iraqi soldiers firing their weapons, according to reports from CNN's Rodgers. The Army calls the soldier-filled vehicles "suicide buses." U.S. tanks easily destroy the Iraqi vehicles, he said. At least one of the buses blew up as if it had explosives inside, Rodgers reported. (Full story) U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks called the airport "the gateway to the future of Iraq," in announcing Friday that American forces were in control of the facility some 12 miles outside the capital. He also said that coalition forces control the roads leading in and out of northern Iraq as well as the route linking Baghdad with Tikrit, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's ancestral home. A convoy of U.S. Marines advanced from positions near Kut toward the southeastern suburbs of Baghdad on Friday, passing dozens of smiling, waving villagers. CNN's Martin Savidge, embedded with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, said the convoy passed Iraqi military uniforms piled beside the road, alongside abandoned tanks and artillery equipment -- evidence, he said, that Iraqi soldiers may have given up the fight and gone home. Northwest of the capital, three coalition troops were killed and two were wounded Friday when a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint about 11 miles away from the strategic Hadithah Dam, Central Command said. The U.S. Central Command said a pregnant woman got out of a car and began "screaming in fear" at the checkpoint and the car exploded as the troops approached the vehicle. The woman and the car's driver were also killed. (Full story) Other developments• Brooks confirmed a report Friday that coalition forces had found a stash of boxes of unidentified powder and liquid and other materials in an industrial facility near Baghdad but could not characterize the find except to say it was "an item of interest. " But a senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing told The Associated Press that the materials were believed to be explosives. CNN is working to confirm the reports. • Two medical volunteers from the group Doctors Without Borders have been missing in Baghdad since Wednesday, the group announced Friday. The volunteers were part of a six-member team that had been in Baghdad for several weeks, and had been providing medical help at the 250-bed Al-Kindi General Hospital in the northeastern part of the city, according to a statement from the Paris-based international medical support group.
• Burning Iraqi military vehicles, including a truck with the bodies of three Iraqi soldiers, littered the road heading east to Mosul after the northern Iraqi town of Khazar fell to Kurdish forces Friday. The town's capture came after more than a day of fighting between those forces -- known as Peshmerga -- and Iraqis firing artillery and mortars. U.S. special forces in white Land Rovers were seen spotting targets for laser-guided bombs. After several hours of U.S. bombing strikes, the Iraqi soldiers retreated and the Peshmerga moved in. • White House officials said Friday that coalition forces "are still in the middle of battle" and cautioned against expecting war to be over soon, following recent military gains around Baghdad. "Victory is when the president announces it," said the official. "The mission is two-fold: disarmament of Iraq and regime change. That has not changed." • British Armed Services Minister Adam Ingram said Friday that it would be easier to win the trust of Iraqi citizens once Baghdad is under coalition control. He told reporters that most of the civilians whom British troops have met in southern Iraq, where offering humanitarian aid is a key goal, fear possible retribution by Saddam. • An Iraqi man who helped U.S. Marines plan the rescue of the 19-year-old American prisoner of war, Jessica Lynch, has been granted refugee status and described by the Marines as a "hero." (Full story) • The annual White House Easter Egg Roll, which last year attracted 40,000 visitors to the South Lawn on Easter Monday, will be scaled down this year to include just active duty military and reservists' families. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said the change was made for security reasons, and to "recognize and honor the active duty and reserve military service members and their families." CNN correspondents Martin Savidge, Walter Rodgers, Jane Arraf, Tom Mintier, Nic Robertson, Brent Sadler, Ben Wedeman and Barbara Starr, and producer Mike Mount, contributed to this report. EDITOR'S NOTE: CNN's policy is to not report information that puts operational security at risk.
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