Huge explosions echoed across Baghdad early today while south of the capital Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard came under ferocious Allied bombardment and ground troops engaged in fierce street battles.

American soldiers on the road to Baghdad fought bloody street-to-street battles with Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam Hussein while coalition aircraft bombed southeastern Iraq to open the way for a possible new front in the crucial battle for Baghdad.

IT may be a shadow of its former self, but Iraq's Republican Guard is still a combat-hardened force. And it stands at the gates to Baghdad.