Iraqi leadership forecasts victory

Confident the US-led forces will be defeated

Iraqi state TV has reported a meeting of the country's leadership chaired by Saddam Hussein which discussed the progress of the war and forecast the defeat of the US-led forces.

The meeting, attended among others by Vice-President Taha Yasin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Saddam's son Qusay, also paid tribute to the suicide bomber who killed four US troops at a checkpoint on Saturday.

They resorted to bombing residential areas and popular markets as a result of their desperation

A statement from the meeting said that about 4,000 mujahidin from the "Arab nation" had arrived "to take part in their Iraqi brothers' jihad against infidel and apostate aggressors".

The TV said the defence minister briefed the meeting on "the brave and heroic stand of our armed forces, who have the honour of fighting in the Decisive Battle".

"They have been defending great Iraq and its sanctities, honour and sovereignty against the rancorous ones who are lying in wait for Iraq, such as the US and British herds."

Heavy losses

"The enemies have suffered heavy losses in men and materiel to the extent that they have started issuing confused statements and are repeatedly reconsidering their frustrated plans," the TV quoted the minister as saying.

The enemy forgot the genuine essence of our fighters, the meaning of their belonging to Iraq

"They resorted to bombing residential areas and popular markets as a result of the desperation and frustration that afflicted their collapsing ranks because of the devastating strikes by the glorious Iraqis on every inch of impregnable Iraq."

The TV said the meeting "expressed satisfaction with and pride in the Iraqi people's support, unity and cohesion and their insistence on exhausting the enemy units, bringing about their total collapse and abject failure in achieving their aggressive goals".

The enemy had been "forced to admit defeat and flee". It had been "defeated in all the positions where it thought it had achieved a foothold".

The defeat of the Americans and British will be a final one

The TV said it had "ridiculed the behaviour of the enemy which imagined that our heroic troops would lose their nerve by merely striking their headquarters and combat trenches".

"The enemy forgot the genuine essence of our fighters, the meaning of their belonging to Iraq and adherence to Iraq and its principles, pure soil, clean air and fresh water."

Final defeat

"The enemy ignored the intimate relationship between the Iraqis, both army and people, and their unique leader mujahid President Saddam Hussein."

"It expressed strong confidence that the defeat of the Americans and British will be a final one on the world level after they are defeated in Iraq."

"The conferees hailed the martyrdom operation that was carried out by Warrant Officer Ali Ja'fr Musa Hammadi al-Nu'mani against a number of the enemy's tanks and armoured vehicles on the outskirts of Al-Najaf city.

"They beseeched God to bestow mercy on his soul and make paradise his final abode," the TV added.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.