Bloody road to Baghdad

US AND BRITISH troops continued their advance on Baghdad yesterday after more than 20 coalition soldiers were killed in "the toughest day" of the war so far.

"It's the toughest day of resistance that we've had thus far. We understand that there may be other tough days ahead of us, but the outcome is still certain," US Army Lt General John Abizaid said last night as troops

advanced to within 100 miles of the city. "We are on track. We will arrive in the vicinity of Baghdad soon."

Twelve were killed in an ambush outside the southern town of Nassiriya and up to 10 more were killed in fighting in the same area.

At US Central Command in Qatar, Lt General Abizaid said: "We are definitely missing 12 soldiers unaccounted for, some of whom I believe ended up on Baghdad television.

"A number were killed in action in Nassiriya with the marines. I believe that number will remain less than 10 plus a number wounded."

Despite the losses, US President George W Bush said last night that Saddam Hussein was "losing control."

"We're slowly but surely achieving our objective," he said from Washington. "We're just in the beginning phases. We're executing a plan. I know Saddam Hussein is losing control of his country."

Late last night, bombs continued to rain down on Baghdad in the most powerful air raid since the start of Washington's "shock and awe" campaign. Iraqi gunners opened up anti-aircraft artillery after the bombing started in the southeast sector of the city. Dozens of explosions rocked the capital as a low-flying plane bombed a building in Saddam Hussein's

Republican Palace compound.

Asked whether there was a possibility of an Iraqi surrender, Mr Bush said: "All I know is we got a game plan, a strategy to free the people from Saddam Hussein and rid his country of weapons of mass destruction."

Mr Bush said he was thankful "the enemy has not used" any such weapons. He suggested it was too late for the Iraqi leader to give up power the condition Mr Bush set last week for Iraq to avoid war. "He had his chance to go into exile," he said.

Meanwhile, British forces also suffered losses yesterday as a RAF pilot and his navigator were killed when a US Patriot missile battery shot down their Tornado warplane as it flew back to Kuwait from a mission over Iraq.

And in perhaps the most dramatic advance on the ground, the US

soldiers covered roughly 230 miles in 40 hours to take positions about 100 miles from Baghdad.

While US officials boasted of the speed of the thrust toward Baghdad, they were forced to confront a horrifying prospect at a camp in Kuwait that one of their own soldiers had launched a fatal attack on comrades. The attack occurred early yesterday at a 101st Airborne Division command centre, where a soldier threw grenades into three tents. Fifteen others were wounded, three of them seriously. The suspect, found hiding in a bunker, is an engineer from an engineering platoon.

The suspect, Sgt Asan Akbar, was described as a convert to Islam.