Baqdad (Al Jazeera with agency inputs) - Residents fled their homes near Baghdad’s Saddam International Airport on Friday, seeking shelter in the city center after US forces staged a fierce attack to seize the airport complex.
"There was bombing all night. It was a night of hell," said one woman, who was shaking in fear after her drive from the airport district. "We saw that they have entered Baghdad, there were planes all night dropping bombs and there was shelling all night."
The woman, who had stopped to buy bread at a bakery, described the overnight fighting as "terrifying...not just for the kids but for us adults." She also said that many of her neighbours in the Radwaniya suburb near the airport were also fleeing to seek refuge with friends and relatives closer to the center.
She was one of many who fled the district, which is 20 km southwest of the city center. Others drove with excessive speed on the main highway from the airport, loading the roof of their cars with blankets and possessions.
"It was one of the worst nights of bombing," said Rakid Abdel-Karim, who works in the bakery on the airport road.
At the airport, fierce fighting erupted between Iraqi forces and around 1,000 US troops with conflicting reports from US and Iraqi officials on who was in control of the airport.
US officials said the airport was under their control, renaming it Baghdad International Airport. But Iraqi officials warned US troops there, saying Iraqi fighters might take "non-conventional" action on Friday night against the invading forces.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said Sahaf said the US forces were on an "isolated island" at Baghdad airport. "It is difficult for the US forces that are surrounded in Saddam airport to come out alive, he said.
"We will commit a non-conventional act on them, not necessarily military," Sahaf told a news conference, adding the act might occur tonight. "We will do something that will be a great example for these mercenaries."
Propaganda ploy?
"I believe coalition forces at the airport were airdropped as part of a propaganda ploy," Moustapha Maher, a retired Egyptian general told Al Jazeera.
"They (Americans) want to show the world that they have reached the suburbs of Baghdad especially since they have not scored any decisive victory in any Iraqi city yet. But the danger would be if these forces are not reinforced by ground troops within the next six to eight hours. Iraqi troops could encircle them."
The assault on the airport was intense and staged through the Baghdad night into Friday. Heavy artillery, gunfire and air raids continued to be heard in the afternoon from the direction of the airport.
Dozens of wounded were evacuated to Baghdad's Al-Yarmuk hospital, witnesses said, as US helicopters swooped over the airport.
The attack on the airport came along with an overnight bombing of the capital, which was plunged into darkness due to a power outage, causing a cut of water supplies for the first time in the war to oust Saddam Hussein that began on March 20.
Streets in the city center were initially empty but around mid-morning some life returned, as a few private cars risked taking their journeys and Baghdad's big red double-decker buses resumed their services.
Green-uniformed militiamen armed with automatic rifles manned barricades throughout the city, but there was little sign of new military preparations.
Most shops were shut and people largely stayed indoors, confused as information- not broadcast on state media- spread among the people that Saddam International Airport had fallen.
President Saddam Hussein on Friday told his people that his army would not allow the US-led invading forces to conquer Baghdad, promising that the Iraqi capital would be fiercely defended.
Saddam Hussein’s message was read out by Sahaf on Iraqi state television.
"The enemy is trying to enter Baghdad," the information minister said. "Let every family be assured...we are determined to repel them and destroy them at the walls of the capital Baghdad, as we are determined to destroy their armies on every inch of Muslim Iraqi land."
"Fight them brothers, hit them day and night and let the land of Muslims be a scorching fire for their feet and their faces wherever they pass. With God's help, their stomachs may grill in hell forever and our martyrs will attain paradise," the presidential statement said.
Shortly after the president’s message, US officials in As-Saliyah Camp near Doha said that the Saddam International Airport was renamed by the invading troops as Baghdad International Airport.
A senior US military spokesman said that the US forces were deployed on the runway of the airport but have not seized the buildings.
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