US forces seized control of Baghdad's international airport this morning in the first ground attack on Iraq's capital in a 16-day-old war to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.
The advance puts the capital within range of ground-based rockets and guns brought by US troops from Kuwait. The US military said 320 Iraqi foot soldiers had been killed in fighting for control of the airport, just 12 miles southwest of the centre of Baghdad.
"We control the airport. It's a big area with a lot of buildings that need to be cleared, but it's ours," Colonel John Peabody, commander of the Engineer Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, said.
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They said dozens of Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery, troop carriers and trucks had been captured or destroyed.
US troops then fought off an Iraqi counterattack, destroying five tanks and several armed pickup trucks in a short battle that killed 40 Iraqis.
Meanwhile, US Marine sources said they had defeated the Nida division of the Republican Guard, southeast of Baghdad.
As many as 100 explosions were also reported through the night from the direction of the airport which, since the 1991 Gulf war and international sanctions, has seen little use. More loud blasts rocked the city centre early this morning, the Muslim holy day.
US Central Command in Qatar said US and British planes also hit Iraq's Air Force headquarters in central Baghdad with satellite-guided bombs.
The top US military commander, General Richard Myers, warned that there were still a lot of "tough fights" ahead"."Nobody should be euphoric that now that we are on the edge of Baghdad this thing is just about over," he said. "That's not true".
For the first time since the conflict began on March 20th, the power went off in Baghdad last night. US officials said they had not targeted the electricity grid.
Dozens of Iraqis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the village of Furat near the airport in what residents said was a barrage of US artillery and rocket fire attacks. Iraq said it captured five US tanks and one helicopter in the battle. The US issued no casualty report.
US and British leaders have said the hardest part of the campaign may be to win Baghdad, where the invaders could be sucked into bloody street-by-street fighting where the advantage of hi-tech weaponry would be blunted.
US commanders have warned they may well not storm towards the city centre even if they secure positions around the outskirts as it is unclear what defences President Saddam Hussein may have positioned inside Baghdad.
The relative ease with which the US-led forces have pushed through Iraq since invading from Kuwait two weeks ago has left commanders guessing where much of Iraq's 350,000-strong armed forces have gone, including the vaunted Republican Guard.
However, the threat of an Iraqichemical or biological attack against coalition forces has become"negligible," US military sources said. "Now that we have penetrated Baghdad's outer ring, thelikelihood (of a chemical or biological attack) is negligible," saidCaptain Adam Mastrianni, the intelligence officer of the 101stAirborne Division's Aviation Brigade.
In a sign that Saddam's authority throughout Iraq may be crumbling, a senior Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged believers not to oppose invasion troops.
In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters, backed by small groups of US soldiers, advanced toward the northern oil town of Mosul, but were met by heavy machine-gun and rifle fire.
Further south, US troops moved into the centre of the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Najaf, searching for paramilitary fighters, and tightened their grip on Nassiriya.
In the far south, British forces surrounding Iraq's second city of Basra edged into the outskirts, capturing an industrial complex where Iraqi militia had spearheaded fierce resistance.
The US House of Representatives in Washington approved nearly $80 billion to finance the Iraq war, reward allies, bolster anti-terrorism efforts and help struggling airlines.
International United Nations humanitarian workers entered Iraq today for the first time sincetheir withdrawal last month, a World Food Programme (WFP) officialsaid.
With speculation that Saddam might have been killed by US bombs or fled, US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld said: "For the senior leadership, there is no way out. Their fate has been sealed by their actions".
The United States lists 54 dead and 12 missing since the war began. Britain says it has suffered 27 dead. Iraq has not given figures for military deaths, but Foreign Minister Naji Sabri has said more than 1,250 civilians have been killed.