US/UK forces continue advance on Baghdad

Clouds of thick smoke hung over Baghdad this morning as a series of explosions sounded in the distance and US troops advanced to within 150 miles of the city.

The explosions – the latest of daily aerial bombardments by US-led forces - appeared to come from the outskirts of the capital. At least some of the smoke came from fires that residents said were set to conceal targets in the city.

Iraqi information minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf said 503 people were injured in air strikes yesterday, including 106 in Baghdad and 366 in the southern city of Basra. He also said 77 civilians were killed in Basra, where allied forces captured the airport and a key bridge.

Iraqi state television reported that air strikes also hit the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.

Al-Arabiya, the Arab satellite television news channel, reported that four people were killed in those attacks.

Allied troops raced through the desert more than halfway to Baghdad, and American commanders said Saddam’s regime was losing control. But Iraqi officials insisted their situation was brighter.

Al-Sahhaf praised what he described as heroic resistance by Iraqis in the southern port town of Umm Qasr, where allied forces engaged in street-to-street fighting against guerrillas, including members of Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen, the Baath Party paramilitary organisation.

The battle was broadcast live on television worldwide. US and British forces have been trying to take full control of the only Iraqi deep-water port for the past two days, and they called in air strikes on the Iraqi resistance during today’s firefight.

“Iraqi fighters in Umm Qasr are giving the hordes of American and British mercenaries the taste of definite death,” Al-Sahhaf said. “Those mercenaries and hired guns are seeing death in front of them, the resistance of Iraqis in a modest and small port. We have drawn them into a quagmire and they will never get out of it.”

He taunted coalition forces by saying they themselves would suffer from “shock and awe”, the term widely used to describe the coalition’s recent bombardment of Baghdad.

Group Capt. Al Lockwood, spokesman for British forces in the Gulf, said the “pockets of resistance” in the area weren’t unusual.

“Like on any normal battlefield, it won’t be intense throughout the line. The nature of the terrain and the forces we’re fighting means that in some areas the forces give up easily, or retreat, or surrender, and in other places diehards, people that want to fight to the death, carry on fighting.

“So firefights can spring up all over the place,” he added.

Iraqi military spokesman Lt. Gen. Hazem Al-Rawi said Iraqi forces had so far shot down five allied warplanes and two helicopters. There has been no confirmation of such incidents by allied officials.

State television yesterday showed what it said was footage of Saddam chairing meetings with senior government ministers and with his son Qusai.

“They expressed their satisfaction with the heroic stance of the armed forces,” the TV report said.

Late last night, Iraqi officials took journalists to residential areas they said were bombed by allied forces.

Seven houses were destroyed in the al-Qadassiya area, and 12 were badly damaged in what appeared to be a missile attack, according to Lt. Gen. Hatem al-Ra’ai, commander of the civil defence forces.

Debris and broken glass littered the street, where a deep crater had opened. It was filled with twisted metal rods, slabs of concrete and furniture.