The Iraqi regime yesterday exulted over setbacks suffered by the US and Britain on the fourth day of the war.
Speaking at successive news conferences, the Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan, the military spokesman Gen Hazim al-Rawi, and the Information Minister Mr Mohamed Said al-Sahaf, said US and British forces had "fallen into a trap".
"Our armed forces are fighting honourably. They are inflicting heavy casualties on enemy troops. The enemy is stuck in a quagmire," Gen al-Rawi boasted, referring to continuing fighting in the southern town of Nasiriyah, one third of the way to Baghdad, and the Persian Gulf port of Umm Qasr.
The US claimed to have taken both towns on Saturday, but yesterday US spokesmen admitted they encountered "significant resistance" in Nasiriyah from an Iraqi unit of at least 500 men armed with tanks.
The US bombed a compound where an Iraqi unit was holed up in Umm Qasr.
Other setbacks included the shooting down of a British Tornado by a US Patriot missile and the deaths of at least four Marines yesterday.
It was difficult to weigh the proportion of wishful thinking and truth in Iraqi pronouncements, but the gloating, combative mood was real enough.
Iraqi officials seemed delighted, even surprised, by the turn of events. Mr al-Sahaf taunted the US-British invasion forces, saying: "It seems they are suffering from 'shock and awe' - let's use their terminology, though I prefer not to." He said a grenade attack by a US Marine on his colleagues in Kuwait showed low morale among US forces, and claimed the US killed 77 people and wounded 366 others with cluster bombs in Iraq's second city of Basra. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Basra is without water or electricity.
Mr Ramadan, threatened Arab governments "who conspire with the invaders".
Mr Ramadan is considered by diplomats to be the most direct conduit to President Saddam Hussein.
The US began day-time bombing, which carries a higher risk to civilians, on Saturday. Explosions could be heard as Mr Ramadan delivered his assessment of the war so far.
Military operations were "progressing in an excellent way" the Iraqi Vice President said.
"The US and Britain said they'd attack with missiles for three days and everything would be over. Now they don't know what to do - how to keep the real facts out of the mass media.
"They say they're heading towards Baghdad and they've covered 160 or 180 km. Let them advance 300 km.
"Let them send their tanks and troops. We hope they come to Baghdad so we can teach this evil administration a lesson."
At that moment, a large explosion rattled the building. The Vice President divulged Iraq's strategy in explicit terms.
"We'll give them time; we won't harass them. But any contact with any town or village will face the same fate as at Umm Qasr and Suq ash Shuyukh [south of Nasiriyah]." He promised that Iraqi television would broadcast footage of destroyed American tanks "within hours".
Very little of the information given by US forces was true, he added: "They said they took Umm Qasr three days ago, but to this moment it is not true.
"They said they occupied Nasariyah and it's not true. We have allowed them to roam in the desert. They have only made contact with two towns."
Later in the day, Mr al-Sahaf claimed the Iraqis thwarted an airborne landing in the marshlands of south-eastern Iraq at Ghubishiya.
"The Iraqi tribes and Baathist Socialist party fighters captured some of them. Others ran away by helicopter," he said, adding that the numbers killed and captured will be announced today.
He said US forces tried to move a column of tanks from Basra airport towards a civilian neighbourhood called Jzeza. "The Iraqi fighters destroyed four tanks and killed or wounded a number of mercenaries.
"The rest fled like rats towards a bridge in the Zubayr district. The militias are surrounding these rats and that bridge."
The continuing fighting at Umm Qasr was "the finest example of resistance and endurance", Gen al-Rawi said.
He denied that the commander of the 51st Sariyat al Jebel Division surrendered, claiming that British forces captured him and his deputy but that the rest of the division was still fighting.
Gen al-Rawi also claimed that "our brave and heroic armed forces"shot down five fighter aircraft, two helicopters and a surveillance drone. He listed the places where these feats allegedly occurred.
Mr Ramadan also took heart from the fact that Suq ash Shuyukh, which rose up against the regime in 1991, is now fighting the US advance.
"This town was the first where the aggressor created instability in 1991," he said.