US fights for Baghdad airport, Iraqis dead nearby

11am

NEAR BAGHDAD - US forces fought for Baghdad airport overnight in the first ground attack on the Iraqi capital since the start of the two-week war aimed at ousting President Saddam Hussein.

US military sources said there was little resistance, but dozens of Iraqi troops and civilians died in an apparent barrage of US artillery and rocket fire attacks nearby and Iraq said it had captured five US tanks and one helicopter in the fight.

The streets of the sprawling city of five million people were almost deserted early on Friday, blackened out by a power cut since Thursday evening, and with little sign of last-minute military preparations to take on the army of a superpower.

Four large explosions rocked the centre of the capital about two and a half hours into Friday, the Muslim holy day.

About 20 explosions were heard south of the city, along with artillery fire. Saddam International Airport is about 20km to the southwest.

US forces with tanks and other armoured vehicles fought Iraqis dug in at the airport. Iraqi officials have denied that the US-led invasion is closing in on the city.

US military sources told a Reuters reporter, travelling with the 3rd Infantry Division near the city, that the fighting was still going on at the airport just before midnight (10am NZT). They said there was little resistance.

The US forces also found a network of tunnels beneath the airport, apparently stretching back to the Tigris river. ABC News said that the airport had already been secured.

AAP media agency, however, reported that there was no sign of American soldiers at Baghdad airport.

Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Paul McGeough said he was not aware of any evidence that US soldiers had captured the airport.

The Iraqis had taken journalists to visit the airport and no one saw any American soldiers. He said if the reports were correct then the situation must have changed very quickly.

Reuters also reported that near the airport casualties were heavy.

Dozens of Iraqis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the village of Furat between the airport and the city centre in what witnesses said was a barrage of US artillery and rockets.

Iraqi officials put the total death toll in and around the village at 83, but this could not be independently confirmed.

"We saw a pile of dead bodies at one of the four hospitals where the victims were taken. Most of them appeared to be military," Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki said. There were more than 120 wounded.

Iraqi officials said their forces captured five US tanks, one helicopter and either seized or killed their crews during fighting by the village of Radhwaniyah near the airport.

The city has been battered by bombings and missiles in almost incessant waves of bombardment since Washington and London launched the war 16 days ago.

US and British leaders have said that the hardest part of the campaign may be to secure Baghdad, where the invaders could be sucked into bloody street-by-street fighting where the advantage of hi-tech weaponry would be blunted.

Iraqi satellite television showed footage on Thursday evening of Saddam, chairing a meeting of leaders including Iraq's vice-president and ministers of defence and irrigation. It was not clear when the film was made.

US President George W Bush accuses Saddam of concealing biological and chemical weapons. Saddam denies having such arms.

Iraq did not use the weapons on troops at the airport despite US speculation that he had drawn a "Red Line" around the capital within which he would use chemical weapons.

The advance puts Baghdad easily within the range of many ground-based rockets and guns brought by US troops from Kuwait. Multi-launch rocket system batteries with the 3rd Infantry, for instance, have a range of 120km.

The lights went out in Baghdad from about 8pm (5am NZT), plunging the city into darkness. US war headquarters in Qatar said that US-led forces had not targeted power supplies.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war