repubblica BAGDAD - "L'esercito iracheno non esiste più". Lo ha annunciato il generale dell'aviazione americana, Michael Mosley, quando volgeva al tramonto la CNN BAGHDAD FIGHT INTENSE A U.S. tank takes part in a lightning raid on a Republican Guard stronghold in Baghdad. Republican Guard hit; Marines in close combat • Two U.S. task forces stage lightning raid into the heart of Baghdad before withdrawing, U.S. sources say • U.S. forces can move about Iraq where they choose, "even into their capital city," U.S. military spokesman says • U.S. military sources indicate ruling Baath Party members among thousands fleeing the Iraqi capital Al Jazzera US-led forces thrust into Baghdad US tanks and fighting vehicles enter the Iraqi capital as both parties claim to have scored military successes. The Iraqi Information Ministry has said it has recaptured Saddam International Airport, partially taken by US forces yesterday www.iraqwar.ru Defiant Iraqis Say U.S. Advance Has Been Broken 05.04.2003 [23:34] Senior Iraqi officials remained defiant today in the face of American military might, asserting that Iraqi soldiers and suicide bombers had "crushed" American troops at Baghdad's international airport and broken the American advance on the capital into isolated pockets that were surrendering to relentless Iraqi attacks. On a day when American commanders sent advance units probing within miles of central Baghdad, the official Iraqi response was mocking and triumphalist, much as it has been throughout the 17 days of war. To Westerners here who have kept abreast of the military situation by satellite telephone links to the outside world, the situation appeared to confirm, ever more strongly, that the rigidities of the system built by Saddam Hussein have become a debilitating handicap to Iraq's ability to confront American power. After years of unquestioning fealty, senior Iraqi officials seemed unwilling to provide any interpretation of military events that might prejudice Mr. Hussein's claim to invincibility.