Seven women and children died after US troops fired at a van which failed to stop at an army checkpoint in southern Iraq.

Baghdad was under renewed heavy bombardment tonight as US troops engaged in fierce battles with Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guards protecting the approaches to the Iraqi capital.

Huge explosions rocked the heart of the Iraqi capital tonight, sending huge clouds of smoke over a building in the centre of the city and around the presidential Old Palace compound across the Tigris River.