Afternoon air raids pounded Baghdad again today, reportedly hitting the palace of Saddam Hussein’s son, Qusay.
The raids on the Iraqi capital, now almost constant, also targeted the Iraqi ministry of information and telecommunications networks.
Earlier, two direct hits were registered on the city centre telephone exchange, flattening the six-storey building.
Reuters correspondents in Baghdad said that the sound of the explosions appeared to be coming from the west of the city, towards Saddam International airport.
There were also reports of explosions to the south, where over the last 24 hours some of the war’s most intense bombardment has targeted Republican Guard positions protecting the approaches to Baghdad.
There were also reports of heavy bombing in Kirkuk and Mosul.
Meanwhile, at least one US soldier was today killed in fighting against Iraqi forces about 110km south of Baghdad. A US officer said that at least one soldier died in fighting near the town of Imam Aiyub, south of the city of Hilla.
US forces were firing artillery towards Imam Aiyub, and Iraqi forces were hitting back with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, reports said.
No senior Iraqis have defected
No senior Iraqi politicians or soldiers have defected since the conflict began 12 days ago, according to Britsh defence secretary, Geoff Hoon.
”There have been, as yet, no defections of very senior politicians or very senior military commanders, but that is certainly not to say there have not been significant surrenders,” Hoon told British MPs today in London.
”We currently hold around 8 000 prisoners of war, many of whom in fact have surrendered and many of whom were pleased to surrender,” he said.
Hoon also appeared to rule out the possibility of sending significant British reinforcements to join the war effort.
”What I am ruling out, at this stage anyway, is the necessity of any substantial increase of our troops,” he said. However, he did say that the TA and other reservists ”could be called on to provide assistance”.
Hoon’s words come just days after the first wave of US troop reinforcements arrived in Kuwait, to join what is shaping up to be a difficult and drawn-out war.
Faced with stronger than expected opposition from Iraqi soldiers, setbacks including friendly fire and civilian deaths, and growing unrest in the Arab world, the chief US architects of the invasion have been forced to defend their plans and send in around 100 000 additional soldiers.
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who has been criticised over his influence on a war plan involving far fewer troops than were used in the 1991 Gulf war, has flatly denied reports that he rejected advice from Pentagon planners for substantially more men and armour.
Marines hunt for ‘Chemical Ali’
US marines today launched a dawn raid on a southern Iraqi town following a tip-off that the Iraqi general known as ”Chemical Ali” could be using it as a base to orchestrate guerrilla attacks.
The marines went into Shatra, north of Nassiriya, on a mission to kill senior Iraqi officials believed to be hiding there, including General Ali Hassan al-Majid, according to Reuters.
Gen Majid, who gained his grisly sobriquet after using gas attacks against the Kurds in 1988, has been has been put in charge of the southern front by his cousin, the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein.
Marines stormed the town with bombers, helicopters and tanks. Officers said they had intelligence from anti-Saddam Iraqis that Gen Majid was in Shatra, along with other senior Ba’ath party officials.
Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire said that the US unit he was embedded with had retraced its steps back south down to Shatra, which is around 35km (20 miles) north of the city of Nassiriya, to engage with hostile forces that had been bypassed on their rapid advance.
Iraqi paramilitary forces have been ambushing coalition supply convoys and slowing the advance on Baghdad.
Royal Marines push closer to Basra
Royal Marine commandos were today pushing closer towards the southern city of Basra, where they plan to target fighters loyal to Saddam.
Around 600 Royal Marines from 40 Commando captured the village of Abu al-Khasib after a full day of fighting yesterday, and are now around a mile from Basra. Today, the marines were expected to push on towards the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
US troops kill 100 Iraqi paramilitaries
US troops killed around 100 Iraqi paramilitary fighters and captured about 50 prisoners at the Shia holy city of Najaf and Samana in south-central Iraq, according to US Central Command.
The US army’s 101st Airborne Division surrounded Najaf yesterday, and was in position to begin rooting out the paramilitary forces, US commander Marvin Hill claimed. Four American soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber in Najaf on Saturday.
However, it was unclear whether the US strategy is to take Najaf or simply to cordon off the city. Certainly there are too many Iraqi fighters in that area to bypass them or leave them unattended and they’re a danger to supply lines on the way to Baghdad.
In Nassiriya, meanwhile, where fighting has been fierce for a week, US marines secured buildings held by an Iraqi infantry division. They contained large caches of weapons and chemical decontamination equipment.
US troops also advanced to the town of Hindiya, on the Euphrates river, engaging Iraqi soldiers in firefights. At least 15 Iraqi troops were reported to have been killed.
Wounded British soldiers condemn US ‘cowboy’ pilot
British soldiers injured when a US aircraft attacked their convoy, killing one of their comrades, hit out angrily at the ”cowboy” pilot today.
Troops wounded in Friday’s attack accused the A-10 Thunderbolt pilot of ”incompetence and negligence”, while others privately called for a manslaughter prosecution.
US ‘takes ricin factory’
US forces were today searching a terrorist compound in north-east Iraq that the Pentagon’s top general claimed was ”probably” the site where poison recently discovered in London was manufactured.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the compound belonged to the group Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamist group which has been linked by the Bush administration to al-Qaea.
”We think that’s probably where the ricin that was found in London came from. At least the operatives, and maybe some of the formulas, came from this site,” Gen Myers told CNN. Before the war, US officials said they had evidence that Ansar had tested chemical and biological weapons on livestock, and possibly on people, at the site.
US and British aircraft and missiles pounded the compound for days, and US AC-130 gunships also attacked before coalition and Kurdish ground forces went in, Gen Myers said.
The site has many underground tunnels to search ”and it may take us a week to exploit that,” he added. Gen Myers said that officials were examining laptop computers and documents also found there.
Ricin is relatively easy to make from castor beans, and is deadly in small quantities. There is no treatment or antidote for the poison, which can take days to kill.
British marine dies in river ambush
A Royal Marine was killed in action when his boat was ambushed in southern Iraq. Several others were injured in the attack on the Faw peninsula, which came as Royal Marines launched their biggest offensive of the war so far, according to the latest reports.
Three US soldiers die in helicopter crash
A US helicopter has crashed at a forward supply and refuelling point in southern Iraq, killing three marines and injuring a fourth.
A US military representative said the Marine UH-1 ”Huey” helicopter was not brought down by hostile fire and a Pentagon official in Washington speculated that bad weather might have been to blame.
”Early indications are that, on take-off, the helicopter crashed,” the Pentagon official told Reuters. There have been at least two other fatal US and British helicopter crashes since the war began. – Guardian Unlimited Â