Minarets blare as bombs rain down

AIRCRAFT screamed in low over the Iraqi capital, shaking buildings early yesterday with a heavy bombardment. As anti-aircraft guns responded, a call of ‘God is great’ rang out from a mosque.

Heavy explosions hit Baghdad through the night. One large explosion shook a Ministry of Planning building within the Old Palace, a presidential compound hit in earlier attacks.

They appeared to be the strongest air strikes since Friday night, when Tomahawk missiles rained down on the city of five million people, smashing several of Saddam Hussein's palaces and government buildings.

Before each blast, low-flying aircraft could be heard. The loudspeaker from a mosque's minaret blared 'God is great' and 'Thanks be to God' apparently to keep up residents' spirits, since it was well before the call to dawn Muslim prayers.

Iraqi state television said air strikes also hit the city of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown. Al-Arabiya, an Arab satellite television news channel, reported that four people were killed in those attacks.

As US led troops raced through the desert toward Baghdad and American commanders said Saddam's regime was losing control, Iraqi officials insisted their situation was brighter.

Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf praised what he described as heroic resistance by Iraqis in the southern port Umm Qasr, where coalition troops engaged in street-to-street fighting with defenders.

"Iraqi fighters in Umm Qasr are giving the hordes of American and British mercenaries the taste of definite death," Al-Sahhaf said.

"We have drawn them into a quagmire and they will never get out of it."

In Washington, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Iraqis clearly "are not a beaten force."

"The hardest part is yet to come," he said.