In central Iraq, US and British forces heading for Baghdad braced for a tough battle in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, 150km south of the capital, after meeting stiff resistance from Iraqi fighters.
Major John Altman, intelligence officer of the 3rd Infantry Division's First Brigade, said the Iraqis were trying to reinforce Najaf with thousands of crack Republican Guard troops from Karbala, 70km north.
US forces said Wednesday they had killed about 1,000 Iraqis in three days of intense clashes in and around Najaf.
US General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces had attacked a column of Iraqi vehicles heading from Baghdad to Karbala to confront US forces. Media reports put the number of vehicles at up to 1,000.
US and UK defense officials have said the likelihood of Iraqi troops using chemical weapons would increase as US-led troops close in on Baghdad, but US and British forces have not yet uncovered any of the weapons of mass destruction they accuse Saddam of harboring.
In the south, British forces were trying to take control of the southern city of Basra after a column of Iraqi tanks made a surprise breakout of the besieged port late Wednesday and pushed on toward British positions.
US-led forces said yesterday they had destroyed a number of Iraqi tanks, but the commander of British forces in the Gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, said the column's movement did not appear to be part of a coordinated counter-attack by Iraqi troops.
Basra, the country's second city, is a key gateway for humanitarian aid, but the fighting has disrupted efforts to deliver much-needed supplies.
Further south, the discovery of mines in the deep-water port of Umm Qasr delayed the first shipment of British aid into Iraq, a British officer said.
On the diplomatic front, most speakers at a public session of the UN Security Council late Wednesday condemned the US-led war on Iraq, warning it could spark a widescale humanitarian disaster.
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