US troops inch towards Baghdad

Allied soldiers inched north towards Baghdad today, capturing or killing paramilitary fighters and Republican Guard while new waves of US bombs hammered the Iraqi capital.

US troops killed about 100 paramilitaries in and around the Shiite holy city of Najaf and seized several dozen Republican Guard in nearby Hindiyah.

The dawn assault is the closest the US-led advance has got to Baghdad, where a battle with Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guard loomed on the horizon.

American soldiers took up positions in Hindiyah on the south side of a 200-yard concrete and steel bridge spanning the River Euphrates.

Peering over sandbags from abandoned bunkers they traded fire with the Iraqis on the other side.

At one point a dark blue car tried to race across the bridge towards the US forces, but it was strafed with heavy machine gun fire which stopped it in its tracks.