Saddam appears on TV ambling through streets

Almost encircled by his American enemies, Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi state television last night, ambling through the residential suburbs of Baghdad, surrounded by delighted, cheering supporters, and even kissing a baby.

Dressed in military fatigues, he dandled a child and clenched his fist as his supporters' chants grew.

Earlier yesterday he delivered a televised speech in which he urged Iraqis to fight to the death against the Anglo-American invasion force, because "victory is in reach".

However obdurate and unrealistic his appeal might appear to the armies about to lay siege to the capital, it was vintage Saddam. The Iraqi President – or a lookalike – appeared in military uniform and black beret beside an Iraqi flag. Accusing the Americans of fighting by stealth, he told Iraqis they could fight with "whatever weapons they have".

The short speech came only two hours after Iraq's Minister of Information, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, made an intriguing – and for the Americans around Baghdad, disturbing – warning that Iraqis would take "unconventional military action" against the invaders. In answer to a journalist's question, Mr Sahaf denied that he was referring to weapons of mass destruction, insisting only that the operation against the Americans would not be "ordinary".

There were suspicions that Iraq might open dams and floodgates to inundate that area west of the Tigris river, which the Americans have occupied outside Baghdad. The Iraqi army used just such a tactic on the Iranians when they appeared to be about to capture Basra during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Either way, President Saddam's appeal showed clearly the irritation he feels at the hit-and-run operations mounted by US special forces.

"The enemy avoids fighting our forces when they find out that our troops are steadfast and strong. Instead, the enemy drops some troops here and there in small numbers, as we had expected." The phrase "as we expected" suggests that the Iraqis have in fact been taken by surprise by the mobility of the American tactics which have, in effect, erased the very notion of the "front line" upon which Iraqi troops are traditionally taught to fight.

Mr Sahaf made reference to the total power cuts now imposed on the city, claiming US forces had dropped some kind of "fibreglass" over Baghdad's two major power stations – in fact, the substance is believed to be graphite, which was also dropped near Serbian electricity facilities during the Kosovo war – which had short-circuited part of the national grid, both in the capital and in the province of Qadisiyah.

His threat of night-time operations against the Americans troops outside Baghdad was clearly something he wanted to publicise. "Tonight you are going to witness some military action which is not ordinary," he said.

"It will not be conventional, and not necessarily carried out by our military ... I am not exposing a secret – but to destroy these kind of mercenaries, darkness is helpful." Mr Sahaf's optimism seemed almost as boundless as that of his President.