Sahaf: U.S. troops will be burned Monday, April 7, 2003 Posted: 9:07 AM EDT (1307 GMT) BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In an apparent show of defiance, Iraq's Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf stood in the streets of Baghdad Monday morning amid a U.S. raid on the capital, issuing denials of coalition advances. Sahaf said American troops were beginning to "commit suicide on the walls of Baghdad. "The soldiers of Saddam Hussein have given them a lesson they will never forget," he said. Iraq Says It 'Slaughtered' Forces Striking Baghdad Mon April 7, 2003 07:18 AM ET By Hassan Hafidh BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said its forces slaughtered U.S. soldiers attacking Baghdad on Monday and denied that U.S. tanks had thrust to the heart of the capital and smashed palaces of President Saddam Hussein. "The infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad," Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told reporters in central Baghdad. "God has given victory to the soldiers and Iraq." "As our leader Saddam Hussein said, God is grilling their stomachs in hell," said Sahaf, standing defiantly on a roof and ignoring U.S. tanks a few hundred meters (yards) away on the other bank of the Tigris. "Be assured, Baghdad is safe, protected. Iraqis are heroes," he said, rejecting U.S. reports of a strike by 65 tanks into the heart of the capital on the 19th day of the war.