Iraq Information Minister: Umm-Qasr Still in Iraqi Hands

As reported by the Arab television channel al-Arabia, the American-British forces still have not occupied Umm-Qasr, which is the under control of the Iraqi army, Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed al-Sahhaf told a press conference in Baghdad on Wednesday. "The occupants have not advanced from their position in the tenth port dock, which they have been in since the first day of the land invasion", said the Iraqi minister.

The information spread by the Western TV channels that the city has been seized by British army units is not true to life, al-Sahhaf said. Umm-Qasr and the adjacent port are still in the hands of the Iraqi army, he stressed.

He also noted that "the military top brass of the United States and its allies have to resort to brazen lies to conceal the failure".