Sahef: Sunday a 'dark day' for coalition
Invasion has killed 62 Iraqis, information minister says
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Mohammed Sahef: "We will show pictures of pilots of Apache helicopters when time is convenient."
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Referring to Iraqi resistance and the capture of allied POWs, Iraq's information minister said Sunday was a "dark day" for the U.S.-led forces sweeping through Iraq and stressed that Iraq is treating its prisoners humanely.
Mohammed Sahef acknowledged, though, that the invasion has taken its toll on civilians, leaving at least 62 dead and many more wounded, including, he said, 194 in Baghdad.
Sahef said "ordinary people," along with regular Iraqi forces, are taking up arms against the Americans and British, saying "two brave peasants" shot down two U.S. Apache helicopters. The Pentagon confirmed that one Apache was missing in Iraq.
Sahef said the United States had tried to drop "mercenaries" near Najaf and Karbala, the Shiite shrine cities in the south, and in the north near Kirkuk. In both cases, he said, the forces were chased away.
Sahef told reporters at a news conference that allied bombardment has caused casualties throughout the country, and read lists of dead and wounded.
"Yesterday, the gangsters lost their nerve, and they were outraged despite the fact that all Iraqi officials under the leadership of President Saddam [Hussein] have said prisoners of war will be treated according to the Geneva Conventions," said Sahef, who added that "a number of their mercenaries are in captivity.
"We will show pictures of pilots of Apache helicopters when time is convenient."
He said the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of POWs were not violated when captured U.S. soldiers were shown and questioned Sunday on Iraqi television, calling the incident a news conference, not an interrogation. A U.S. Army general said the broadcast, in which several soldiers who appeared to have been shot in the head were also shown, was a "clear violation" of the Geneva Conventions.
"We are committed to the Geneva Conventions, and any mercenary who doesn't get killed on the battlefield will be taken a prisoner according to the Geneva Conventions," Sahef said.
Directing his ire at the United States, Britain and Israel, which he called the "Zionist entity," Sahef said "Their hands are blood-stained with the blood of women in Afghanistan" and the Vietnamese, an apparent reference to the Vietnam War.
Sahef said hundreds of thousands of Iraqi militias and fighters -- members of the Iraqi tribes and combatants of the ruling Ba'ath Party -- are deploying "according to the movement of this boa [constrictor] in order to cut it to pieces."
