BAGHDAD, March 23: Iraq said on Sunday that it had shot down five coalition planes and two helicopters, and had stopped the advance of invading troops near Nasiriyah and Najaf in the south of the country.

Military spokesman Colonel Hazim al-Rawi told a news conference that four planes were downed over Baghdad and one over the southern city of Basra.

One helicopter was shot down over the main northern city of Mosul and the second over As-Samawa in the south, he said, without providing any further details.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf also said Iraqi forces had halted the advance of coalition forces into the city of Nasiriyah and the Najaf region.

The US military announced on Saturday that Nasiriyah, around 180 kilometres northeast of the Kuwaiti border, had fallen but admitted they had chosen not to enter the city to avoid house-to-house fighting.

“They (US troops) are in a quagmire from where they will leave only as corpses,” Mr Sahhaf said.

The minister also said that “seven million armed fighters of the Baath party are deployed through all the territory of Iraq to fight the hordes of invaders,” together with six million volunteers.—AFP