Almost the entire Iraqi leadership vanished as American armour rolled into the capital Baghdad, it was reported today.

Images of Saddam Hussein lay shattered across Baghdad today after the oppressed people of the Iraqi capital vented their anger at the ousted tyrant.

Kuwaiti television has trumpeted the joy of Iraqis after the fall of Baghdad to US troops, with a presenter saying it is a “slap in the face” to those Arabs who sided with Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi civilians have torn up and spat at portraits of Saddam Hussein in multiple acts against the Saddam regime in Baghdad today.

US FORCES said it may take some time to determine whether Saddam Hussein was killed in a bombing raid on a restaurant where he was believed to be meeting with his sons.

A US military source has said two presidential palaces, including the Republican Palace, have been raided.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf claimed US soldiers were being “slaughtered in their hundreds at the walls of Baghdad“.

US Army tanks rumbled into Baghdad early today for the first time while columns of armoured vehicles began encircling the city.

WITH thousands of frightened residents fleeing Baghdad and US troops in control of its airport, the Iraqi information minister promised yesterday that his nation’s military would launch an “unconventional” counter-attack against the coalition troops.

Thousands of Iraqi’s today ignored Saddam Hussein’s exaltations to stay and fight and were fleeing Baghdad in a stream of bumper-to-bumper vehicles after US troops seized the capital’s airport.

Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf threatened “something that is non traditional, unconventional” and “non military” against the allies tonight.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf today read out a statement reportedly by Saddam Hussein, promising to defeat the coalition forces at the gates of Baghdad.

WITH US ground forces closing in fast, Saddam Hussein last night exhorted the Iraqi people to “fight them with your hands,” according to a statement on Iraqi satellite television.

Saddam Hussein today issued a fresh call for the Iraqi people to fight on and defend their towns, according to a broadcast on Iraqi satellite television.

Saddam Hussein tonight called for a jihad – holy war – against the US led invasion of Iraq.

American marines took at least 20 Iraqi prisoners today during a firefight in and around the central town of Diwaniyah.

A GENERAL from Saddam Hussein’s army has been captured in southern Iraq and is being pressed to provide strategic information, British officers said yesterday.

IRAQIS crowded into a hospital in a northern suburb of Baghdad yesterday, comforting or searching for scores of loved ones killed or injured in an air-raid on a busy market.

A howling desert sandstorm cast a yellow pall over the city and distant explosions could be heard more and more frequently today as Baghdad braced for the onslaught of allied forces closing in on the capital.

IRAQI forces, with a hail of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, downed two Apache helicopters yesterday and forced 30 other helicopters in their brigade back to their base.

Iraq today claimed to have shot down two Apache helicopters and said it was holding the two Allied pilots prisoner.

The first prisoners of war captured in southern Iraq were searched and herded into temporary barbed wire enclosures.

Here are the latest developments in the Iraq crisis:

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last night outlined eight objectives pursued

HEAVY explosions, air raid sirens and the crackle of anti-aircraft fire thundered through Baghdad last night as the Iraqi capital faced a second night of US-led attacks.

Hundreds of security forces and armed members of President Saddam Hussein’s Baath party deployed throughout Baghdad today, taking up positions in the city and on its southern approaches as the Bush ultimatum for the Iraqi leader to leave or face war drew closer.

With Saddam Hussein defying the American demand to quit his homeland, thousands of US and British troops, armoured vehicles and trucks advanced toward the Iraqi border today, positioning themselves to invade on short notice.

Armed members of President Saddam Hussein’s Baath party fanned out across Baghdad in a show of force today while other residents hunkered down before a US ultimatum expires for the Iraqi leader to leave Iraq or face war.

The UN weapons inspectors today flew out of Iraq after US President George Bush issued Saddam Hussein a final ultimatum to go into exile or face war.

THERE was no need for UN inspectors to return to Iraq, the country’s information minister said yesterday, insisting that claims Baghdad still possessed weapons of mass destruction were a lie.

UN weapons inspections in Iraq are over, the country’s information minister told the Arabic satellite TV network Al-Jazeera today.

Iraq's foreign minister has ruled out the return of UN weapons inspectors to the country even if sanctions are removed.