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Iraq's struggle may last years: Iraqi envoy
The Iraqi people will keep fighting against the Anglo-American coalition despite the fact that they have entered Baghdad, Iraq's ambassador in Hanoi said on Thursday.
The Iraqi people will keep fighting against the Anglo-American coalition despite the fact that they have entered Baghdad, Iraq's ambassador in Hanoi said on Thursday.
"Fighting is still going on in Baghdad. The battle of the capital has not ended yet," Salah Elmukhtar, Iraq's ambassador in Hanoi said.
Iraq's UN ambassador Mohamed al-Douri said on Wednesday, "The game is over", after US-led forces took control of Baghdad with Saddam Hussein nowhere to be found.
But Salah Elmukhtar disagreed: "Iraqi people are all against the foreign invasion," he said, saying scenes of jubilation were organized by "Iraqi mercenaries trained outside of Iraq by US forces."
"If we lose Baghdad, we will keep fighting in other cities. It could last one month, one year, ten years."
"We haven't had any direct contacts recently with Baghdad because all our telephone lines have been destroyed. But we have some primitive ways of communicating. We know what to do in such circumstances," he said.
The envoy believed the international press coverage could not be accurate.
"There is no coverage of what is happening because all the TVs and radios have left after the Americans occupied the Palestine Hotel," he added.
Two cameramen, one from the Reuters news agency and the other working for Spanish television station Telecinco, were killed after a US tank fired Tuesday on the Palestine Hotel where most foreign journalists are based.
"The US forces do not want the press to say what is really happening. Why do they send tanks to the hotel? There is nothing to occupy there. They only allow journalists to cover the areas they control", the Iraqi envoy added.
