Iraqi television showed a video of what seemed to be four dead Americans and interviews with five US prisoners taken near Nassiriyah. Other accounts spoke of at least 10 Americans dead. A US general said no more than 10 soldiers were missing.

Britain said it had no POWs in Iraq but that two British airmen were missing after being shot down by friendly fire from a US Patriot missile.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf claimed yesterday that it downed seven American and British military aircraft including two helicopters. He also said that seven million Iraqis were fighting the US-led allied forces.

Sahaf said the enemy planes were downed in the Shuala and Ridwaniya areas of Baghdad as well as in Akarkouf and Taji regions, north of Baghdad, and Basra. The two helicopters were downed in Baaj and Samawa regions, he added.

Arab News learned that another American aircraft was downed in central Baghdad yesterday. Iraqi forces later arrested the two pilots of the plane after a long search in which a large number of Iraqi citizens took part. A witness said one of the pilots was wearing Arab dress to disguise himself. He was also carrying a false Iraqi ID card.

Meanwhile, a guerrilla counterattack by a militia group known as Saddam’s Fedayeen stopped a major thrust north toward Baghdad by US Marines, who took significant casualties in heavy fighting as they tried to cross bridges over the Euphrates River at Nassiriyah. Allied bombings here targeted the airport and the Al-Qadisiya housing district, which accommodates the ministerial complex, as well as special security command headquarters. The bombings also disrupted power supplies in the city.

The Americans and their British allies have overwhelming firepower, as shown by the weekend blitz on Baghdad, but Iraqi guerrilla tactics seemed to be designed to slow their advance.

Yet in briefings, US and British spokesmen oozed confidence, saying the campaign was going faster than planned. One British source said the battle for Baghdad could begin in as little as 36 hours. Iraq said it was looking forward to the invaders’ arrival. “We wish that they would come to Baghdad so we can teach this evil administration, and those who work with it, a lesson,” said Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.

Elsewhere, the westward arm of what may be a developing US pincer movement on Baghdad halted outside the city of Najaf after heavy fighting overnight.

US officers said a division of Saddam’s elite Republican Guard was barring the road to Baghdad. There were civilian vehicles and incinerated bodies littering the plain after the US Third Infantry Division overwhelmed militia fighters in a battle south of Najaf, just 160 km south of Baghdad. US military sources said about 70 Iraqis were killed. US armored infantry and tanks took control of the plain in the early hours of the day after a battle of more than seven hours.

In southern Iraq, where US and British forces have swarmed in from Kuwait and from ships in the Gulf since Thursday, pockets of resistance continued to pose problems for the invaders.

US planes and tanks dislodged some Iraqi fighters from the southern port of Umm Qasr, where at least 120 Republican Guards were thought to be dug in. But as night fell they were still using machine gun, artillery and mortar fire to flush out another group.

The main southern city of Basra remained unsafe for foreign troops. “There are hundreds of Baath Party militia active around Basra,” one said, referring to Saddam’s ruling party. “They have AK-47s and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and there’s a constant threat of ambush. It redraws the laws of war.”

Washington said some US soldiers and an aircraft were believed missing, after Baghdad said it had downed five planes and two helicopters and would show prisoners on television. Al-Jazeera channel later aired Iraqi footage of dead and captive Americans. “I was just under orders,” said one soldier, who gave his name only as Miller. “I don’t want to kill anybody.”

Baghdad suffered a fourth day of bombardment, with some of the biggest blasts to date, as planes pounded a single target in the west. “The earth shook under our feet and buildings shook. A huge cloud of white smoke billowed hundreds of meters into the sky,” one resident said.