"Yesterday (Saturday) we attacked the enemy with missiles. We killed 50 soldiers in enemy ranks," Sahhaf told a press conference in Baghdad, referring to US forces who seized control of the airport Friday.

In a an earlier statement on Abu Dhabi television Saturday, Sahhaf had said he believed more than 300 US troops had been killed in the fighting around the airport.

In Sunday's news conference, Sahhaf also said that Iraqi troops loyal to President Saddam Hussein destroyed six tanks and damaged 10 others in the fighting around the complex, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of the city centre.

Two Apache attack helicopters were shot down in the Taamin area, south of the capital, he added.

Colonel Will Grimsley, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's First Brigade, told AFP from the airport that US forces controlled 95 percent of the complex and that 5,000 soldiers were deployed on the site.

SPACE.WIRE