BAGHDAD, March 29: Iraq said on Saturday that its military had killed hundreds of enemy soldiers in the 10-day-old war and shot down five fighter planes and four helicopter gunships, one of which was captured almost intact.

A military spokesman, speaking on television, also said six unmanned drones and 143 Cruise missiles had been shot down.

Iraqi forces had also destroyed 74 tanks, five tank transporters and 35 armoured personnel carriers, he said, adding that thousands of enemy soldiers had been wounded.

“These losses drove the (US) administration of evil to send reinforcements in response to cries of help from its officers in the field,” the spokesman said.

The United States has ordered 120,000 more troops to the Gulf. The US military put their own casualties at 30 dead and 15 missing, while British casualties are given as 23 dead.

US CLAIM: A multi-force allied air attack on a crack unit of Iraq’s Republican Guard near Karbala killed at least 55 Iraqi soldiers and destroyed more than 25 vehicles, US military officials claimed on Saturday.

Two battalions of Apache helicopters from the 101st Airborne’s Aviation Brigade struck 40 targets of the Republican Guard’s Medina Division during the attack late Friday, Major Hugh Cate said.

“We completely destroyed 25 vehicles — tanks, armoured personnel carriers and trucks,” Cate, the 101st’s public affairs officer, said.

He added that at least 55 Iraqi soldiers were killed and there were no US deaths among the helicopter pilots.

The Apache strikes were part of a combined US-British attack on the armoured Medina Division, which played a leading role in the invasion of Kuwait that led to the 1991 Gulf War and reportedly has more than 200 Russian T-72 tanks.

British Royal Air Force pilots said that laser-guided bombs and Maverick missiles destroyed some of the Medina Divisions’s biggest guns.

Flight Lieutenant Scott Morley, a Harrier pilot, said he joined a queue of coalition planes including A10 tankbusters and American F16s and F18s to take his turn to bomb the division.

“There was fantastic visibility and I could even see the camels on the ground as well as a number of bomb craters around the encampment,” he said.

“I got two good hits on Medina Division artillery pieces.”

The Medina Division is regarded as one of the best equipped and best manned of the elite Republican Guard’s six divisions who are charged with protecting Saddam and the capital.

It has been guarding Karbala, 80 kilometres southwest of Baghdad, in a bid to ward off the US and British ground push towards the capital.

The US army’s 3rd Infantry Division, which has led much of the military’s thrust north from the Kuwaiti border, is positioned on the outskirts of the city and apparently poised to take advantage of Friday’s air assault.

The commander of the 101st’s Aviation Brigade, Colonel Greg Gass, said on Saturday that he had coordinated his battalions’ assaults with the airforce.

“We worked closely with the airforce and it was a success,” Gass said.

The 101st’s 20-million-dollar Apaches had been absent from the first eight days of the war but entered the combat action with strikes “in the vicinity” of Karbala, Gass said.

The Apaches, with their Hellfire missile capabilities, are regarded as the best helicopters for destroying heavy armour, especially tanks.

Officers within the 101st Aviation Brigade said the Apache pilots met some resistance on Friday night, with some aircraft taking hits, but Gass said all pilots returned to their base in southwest Iraq safely.

However, two Apaches crashed at their forward operating base - one on take off and one as it came into land. Officers said the pilots did not sustain serious injuries although the helicopters were severely damaged.—Reuters/AFP