Baghdad bombed around the clock

United States and British warplanes pounded Baghdad around the clock yesterday, upping the ferocity of their aerial bombardment as US Marines battled Iraqi forces on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra.

US infantry said they had captured a vital bridge over the Euphrates river, needed for their drive on Baghdad, but elsewhere the invading troops met some stiffer-than-expected resistance as they pushed deeper into Iraq.

By contrast to the opposition on the ground, US and British forces had complete dominance of the skies, hitting Baghdad repeatedly with devastating bombardments that set off giant fireballs, thunderous explosions and glowing clouds.

US Army General Tommy Franks, who is commander of the invasion, said his forces were using munitions on a "scale never before seen" and confidently predicted that victory was certain.

"This will be a campaign unlike any other in history. A campaign characterised by shock, by surprise, by flexibility... and by the application of overwhelming force," he said in his first briefing since the attack on Iraq began on Thursday.

Iraq denounced the attackers as criminals and appealed to the United Nations to halt the invasion "unconditionally".

After a day of fierce fighting, US Marines said they had defeated Iraqi forces on the outskirts of the oil city of Basra, some 550 km southeast of Baghdad, taking hundreds of prisoners in the process.

"It's definitely a big victory," US Marine Captain Andrew Bergen told Reuters.

Further north, in the city of Nassiriya, US troops forging a path to Baghdad secured a key bridge over the Euphrates, dislodging Iraqi forces who had slowed their advance on Friday.

However, after two days of skirmishes, Marines still struggled to gain full control of Umm Qasr, Iraq's only deep-water port, which lies close to the Kuwaiti border.

"It's probably not going as quick as we would have liked," said Colonel Thomas Waldhauser, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

In his weekly radio address to the nation, US President George W. Bush cautioned against over-confidence: "A campaign on harsh terrain in a vast country could be longer and more difficult than some have predicted," he said.

In a defiant response to the repeated bombing raids, Iraq's information minister said the attacks were the work of an "international gang of criminal bastards" and had wounded more than 200 civilians in Baghdad.

Health Minister Umeed Midhat Mubarak said later that at least three people had been "martyred" in the raids on Baghdad.

As sun set, Iraqi forces lit oil-filled trenches around Baghdad in an apparent bid to create a smokescreen to hinder the air strikes. Military experts said this would not halt the US bombers and as darkness fell, new air raids swept the city.

US and British officials said they were doing everything they could to limit civilian casualties and stressed that the bombing raids were aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's control network, not the Iraqi people.

"The lights stayed on in Baghdad, but the instruments of tyranny are collapsing," British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told a news conference in London.