US forces within 30km of Baghdad

SOUTH OF BAGHDAD - US forces pushed to within 30 km of Baghdad on Wednesday (early today NZT) after dramatic advances across the Tigris river and past the Shi'ite shrine city of Kerbala.

A Reuters correspondent with the US Third Infantry Division said a military source had told him vanguard units were 30km from the southern edges of the capital.

Forces pushing along the Tigris valley from the southeast were as near as 40km away, the source said.

The two-pronged offensive was the most stunning advance yet in the 14-day-old war to remove President Saddam Hussein, although Iraq denied US forces had crossed the Tigris or made gains anywhere else.

"The dagger is clearly pointed at the heart of the Baghdad regime and will continue to be pointed at the heart of that regime," US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said.

He said US troops had destroyed the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard near the town of Kut, 170 km southeast of Baghdad, and had fought two other Guard divisions.

Bombs crashed into central Baghdad, killing several motorists and hitting a Red Crescent hospital, Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul reported.

She said at least five cars had been crushed, with their drivers burned to death inside.

Hospital sources said at least 25 people, including medical staff and patients, had been wounded in the raids, which also smashed buildings in a trade fair, next to a government security office which was not visibly damaged.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said air strikes had killed 24 civilians and wounded 186 in the past 24 hours, with 10 dead and 90 wounded in Baghdad alone.

"No matter how many Iraqi civilians they kill, this will make us even stronger and even more determined to repel the invasion and to defeat them," Sahaf said.

On world markets, the swift US offensives pleased investors hoping for a rapid end to the war. Stocks and the dollar rose, oil dipped and traditional safe haven assets fell.

US Marines said they seized a bridge over the Tigris west of Kut, 170km southeast of the Iraqi capital.

"That's the last big bridge we needed," a senior Marine officer told Reuters.

Later two huge American bombs exploded close to Kut, sending giant mushroom clouds into the air.

Farther west, the 3rd Infantry encircled Kerbala and headed on for the Euphrates river on the road to Baghdad.

Two powerful US columns are now closing on the capital from the south and southeast after an aerial bombardment that battered elite units guarding the city for more than a week.

Iraqi television said Saddam met officials, including his two sons Uday and Qusay, but showed no pictures of the meeting and there was no independent confirmation that it had occurred.

Two messages read on television for Saddam yesterday urged Iraqis to wage holy war on the invaders.

Long obsessed with his own security, the Iraqi leader hardly ever appears in public or on live television, contributing to persistent uncertainty about his whereabouts and health.

Soon after the television reported Saddam's meeting with officials, planes bombed one of his palaces in central Baghdad.

"It was a very powerful explosion," correspondent Nadim Ladki said as white smoke billowed from the area.

Air strikes also pounded the southern defences of the city, and heavy B-52 bombers pummelled targets in northern Iraq.

Helicopters and fighter planes strafed Fedayeen militia active in Najaf, another Shi'ite shrine city in central Iraq.

"We are going to destroy them," said Lieutenant Colonel Chris Holden of the 101st Airborne.

Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray, with the 101st, saw columns of smoke rise above Najaf after British Tornado aircraft bombed the ruling Baath Party headquarters.

Sahaf said Iraqi forces had fought off a US attack on Najaf and accused the Americans of bombing shrines there.

A US spokesman accused Iraqi forces in Najaf of firing from the gold-domed shrine of Ali, one of the holiest sites for Shi'ite Muslims. The Americans did not return fire, he said.

The advances on the Euphrates and Tigris, which flows through Baghdad, came after US troops halted their push for the capital for several days to bolster vulnerable supply lines.

The commander of British forces in Iraq, Air Marshall Brian Burridge, said the decisive phase of the war had begun but might not end soon. "Decisive phases often take time," he said.

"We need to proceed with great delicacy in Baghdad as we did in Basra because we don't want to cause any more damage to the place than is necessary and we certainly don't want to add to civilian casualties."

He cited the tactics of British forces who have surrounded the southern city of Basra, staging a series of quick strikes into the centre to kill or capture forces loyal to Saddam. They have held back from a frontal assault.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war