US Marines were locked in fighting in the key southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr yesterday after a blistering overnight bombardment of Baghdad marked a major escalation in the war to topple Saddam Hussein.
US and British forces moved in on Iraq's second-largest city, taking its airport and a bridge while Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's security forces resisted with artillery and heavy machine guns.
US forces captured the airport on the north side of Basra after encountering resistance from Iraqi troops in armored personnel carriers, said Marine Lieutenant Eric Gentrup.
"There was a decent amount of resistance," Gentrup said.
Iraq said three people were killed and more than 200 wounded in Friday's onslaught, when planes dropped hundreds of missiles and bombs on the capital and other cities.
Britain said the US army had secured two bridges over the River Euphrates, while a US military spokesman said the key town of Nasiriyah had been captured, opening the way for a thrust towards Baghdad.
Turkish troops were reported to have entered the Kurdish-held north of Iraq, defying US insistence that such a deployment would be "unhelpful," while US missiles targeted an Islamist group in the region that Washington has linked to the al-Qaeda network.
Seven more coalition troops were killed in a collision between two Royal Navy helicopters over the Gulf, as US troops heading for Baghdad took a large swathe of southern Iraq to the west of the Euphrates River.
British Minister of Defence Geoff Hoon said regular units of the Iraqi forces appeared to have pulled out of Basra, adding allied troops were camped outside the city.
He cautioned, however, that elements of Saddam's security services were still in position, "maintaining resistance."
* Fresh afternoon explosions rock Baghdad; US-led forces launch first daylight strikes on Baghdad after heavy night blitz.
* US-led forces capture Nassiriya, secure bridge over Euphrates river, according to US military spokesman.
* Iraq says three killed in overnight air raids, 250 civilians wounded since war began.
* US Marines say tanks in ``major battle'' outside Iraq's second city Basra; Britain says regular Iraqi forces have left Basra, some units resisting; US says some resistance around the port city of Umm Qasr.
* Thousands of Muslims in Asia stage anti-war protests.
* Turkish forces enter northern Iraq.
Source: Reuters
British armed forces chief Admiral Sir Michael Boyce said the Iraqi 51st division had surrendered in the Basra area and there now were "many thousands" of prisoners of war.
A military spokesman at the central command post in Qatar said US and British troops were "trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender" at Basra, while Boyce added that the so-called "Desert Rats" brigade was also in the region.
The Qatar-based satellite channel al-Jazeera reported that some 50 people were killed in a US-led bombardment of the southern port.
But US Marines were still battling Iraqi resistance on the outskirts of the strategic southern port of Umm Qasr, a correspondent reported.
US Cobra helicopters were engaged in combat, firing missiles while both sides were heard launching mortar rounds.
The Iraqis have apparently placed a number of anti-tank mines around the area, according to a correspondent.
In Baghdad, Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said the Iraqi military had inflicted "heavy losses" on US and British troops while repelling attacks in southern Iraq.
"Our forces remain in their positions" in Umm Qasr, he said, contradicting earlier reports that Iraq's sole significant deep-sea port had been captured.
A British spokesman said earlier that British forces controlled most of the strategic port: "We believe our objectives have been met," Group Captain Al Lockwood said at the US Central Command post in Qatar.
He said there is "still resistance in some parts, but the majority [of Umm Qasr] is patrolled" by British forces.
Soldiers from the US Army's air assault division "Screaming Eagles" crossed into southern Iraq to play what one commander said would be a "significant role" in the coalition onslaught.
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