US forces plunged into the heart of Baghdad yesterday, raiding Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces, while Britain said its troops had overrun the southern city of Basra and there was strong evidence key Saddam ally "Chemical Ali" had been killed.
Baghdad echoed to big explosions and the rattle of small-arms fire and its skyline was smeared with thick smoke as US tanks and armored personnel carriers sped in from the west to assault Saddam's symbols of power, while Marines advanced from the southeast.
But US officers described it as a tactical raid to give a "powerful message" to the Iraqi regime, not the start of the much-expected final battle to seize the capital, one of Saddam's last strongholds.
From the west, three battalions of the US 3rd Infantry Division, comprising more than 100 tanks and fighting vehicles, pushed toward the western bank of the Tigris river.
They captured Saddam's main official residence in the heart of Baghdad, as well another palace in the city center and a third near the airport, said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Bayer, the 3rd Infantry Division's operations officer.
"First Brigade attacked out of the airport this morning and has seized the presidential palace [nearby]," Bayer said. "There are two palaces [in the city center]; we own both of them."
From the southeast, US Marines entered Baghdad undeterred by the blowing up of two bridges on the Diyala River, which runs east of the Iraqi capital.
"We're in Baghdad and we're in Baghdad to stay," said Brigadier-General John Kelly, assistant commander of the First Marine Division.
He did not say how many Marines had entered the capital or how far they had penetrated.
But reporters saw two US armored vehicles and 10 Marines in full combat gear at Saddam's main presidential palace in the city center.
The US denied, though, that that this operation was the final drive for Baghdad, styling it more as a "raid through the city" to show military muscle.
"What this is is a powerful message that we can go where we want, when we want," Pentagon spokesman Major Ben Owens said. "We are not at this point going to say that this is the start of the Battle of Baghdad."
Reporters said there was a heavy exchange of mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire at the main presidential palace. An arms depot had caught fire and thick white smoke covered the area, while fuel trenches inside the compound were set ablaze, belching out layers of black smoke.
As the fighting raged, the streets were all but deserted. Almost all shops in central Baghdad were closed and the station for buses out of the city was empty.
Even as the world's news media filmed US tanks as they rolled down the western bank of the Tigris, the Iraqi government insisted it was repelling the assault.
Smiling and defiant, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf held an impromptu press conference to urge the world not to believe US claims.
"Don't believe these invaders and these liars," he said. "There are none of their troops in Baghdad.
"We killed them, we made them drink poison and taught them a lesson that history will never forget," he added.
There were no immediate details from either side about the toll from the US operation.
But at least six US soldiers were wounded and six unaccounted for when an army position south of Baghdad was hit in a rocket attack, according to US military sources at Baghdad airport.
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