Baghdad came under fresh bombardment yesterday as US-led forces dug in and regrouped south of the capital and Washington prepared to throw a further 120,000 men into battle against President Saddam Hussein.
In Baghdad, witnesses said eight Iraqis were killed and 33 hurt when two missiles hit a residential area in the city centre. Wednesday, 14 people died in a missile strike.
On the ninth day of war, US-led forces maintained pressure against the regime, pounding the capital and targets to the south in preparation for a final push on the city.
Seven Iraqi civilians were killed and 92 wounded in overnight air strikes in Baghdad, Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said.
US forces meanwhile shored up the northern front, airlifting dozens of transport vehicles into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
Troops were seen boarding trucks in early morning amid reports of the first major movement in the region as Iraqi Kurd rebels advanced to 20km of the northern oil capital Kirkuk.
But the top US army ground commander in Iraq said tougher-than-expected Iraqi forces had stalled the US drive from the Kuwaiti border in the south toward Baghdad. Other US officials said the assault on Baghdad could be delayed until air strikes soften up crack Republican Guard units defending the capital.
Stock markets meanwhile dragged lower while oil prices jumped to the highest level since the start of the war amid fears of a long disruption.
The tens of thousands of troops now more than 700km north of the Kuwaiti border have encountered stiff resistance and atrocious weather, slowing the advance on Baghdad anticipated by military planners and placing a heavy burden on supplies coming up from the south.
* Warplanes, cruise missiles strike Baghdad in some of heaviest bombing in war; Iraq promises "living hell" for US-led forces
* British officer says Iraqi forces fire mortar bombs on civilians leaving Basra
* First British aid ship docks at Umm Qasr
* Iraq says overnight bombing of Najaf killed 26, injured 60, Baghdad air raids Thursday night killed seven, injured 92
* US says Iraq may have told army to ready chemical weapons; says Iraq still poses threat to neighboring countries
* Kurdish fighters cross the Iraqi frontline for the first time heading for the oil-rich city of Kirkuk
* US troops gear up for intense battle with Republican Guard near Shiite holy city of Kerbala, about 110km south of the Baghdad capital, possibly within the next 48 to 72 hours
Source: Reuters
US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who met at the Camp David presidential retreat Thursday, admitted the war launched on March 20 could last longer than expected.
Seeking to punch a hole in Iraqi defenses ahead of the decisive battle for Baghdad, US and British forces took advantage of a break in bad weather Thursday and yesterday to hit the seat of Saddam's power with some of the most punishing bombardments yet.
Explosions were heard on the outskirts of the city of 5 million in the early afternoon, a correspondent said, after intensive US and British bombing during the night from both aircraft and missile-launching ships.
Attacks blasted communication centers but telephone lines did not seem to have been cut, correspondents reported.
As preparations for a new front continued in the Kurdish-controlled north, where more than 1,000 US paratroops were dropped early Thursday, sporadic fighting took place in central Iraq.
The US army's 3rd Infantry Division was 80km south of Baghdad near Karbala while Marines were advancing north in two prongs between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, officials in Washington said.
US warplanes dropped 450kg bombs Thursday on an area between Karbala and Baghdad believed held by the Republican Guard's Medina division.
Resistance from lightly armed Iraqi irregulars in the south has raised the spectre of bloody street combat in the capital, as well as continuing attacks on US supply lines to the rear.
"The enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd war-gamed against," the army's senior ground commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General William Wallace told The Washington Post at Forward Operating Base Shell, in Iraq.
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