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Baghdad faces fiercest bombardment

Qusay Saddam's palace rocked; telecommunication centre pounded; US, British soldiers killed in action, three Marines die in chopper crash

STAR DESK
Anglo-American forces have intensified assaults on Basra, Najaf and Nasirriyah, important southern cities, and waged the deadliest air raid on Baghdad using B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers simultaneously.
Some 1,800 missiles poured into the Iraqi capital, pulverising government buildings, including the Information Ministry and the telecommunication centre.
The city sky was filled with plumes of smoke and dust rising from the rubbles of damaged buildings.
Iraqi domestic television failed to come on air after a cruise missile hit the roof of the Information Ministry in the second night strike on the building in three days.
At daybreak, two blasts hit a presidential palace used by Saddam's son Qusay, who commands the elite Republican Guard. At least one missile slammed into presidential compound in central Baghdad just after midnight.
But casualties on the invaders' side kept piling and three US marines were killed when a helicopter crashed in southern Iraq. At least one US soldier was killed in a clash with Iraqi forces, armed with rocket propelled grenades south of the city of Hilla. A British Royal marine was
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also killed in ambush near Basra.
The US has so far lost 46 troops and 104 wounded, with 17 listed as missing since the start of the war on March 20. Britain has lost 24 dead. Iraq has said nearly 600 Iraqi civilians have been killed and more than 4,500 wounded.
Iraqis also lost their soldiers in huge numbers. A US official claimed hundreds of Iraqi troops died in two southern cities without specifying.
Defying deaths, Iraq yesterday ruled out any negotiated end to the invasion. Iraqi Foreign Minister Nazi Sabri at a press briefing said the end will come in the way of defeat of the invaders.
The US has added 5,000 more troops to its forces fighting for control of Nassiriyah where fierce fighting is still going on.
They launched a separate raid on the town of Shatra 50km north of Nassiriyah to try to kill Iraqi officials they believe are directing guerrilla attacks on supply convoys.
They believe Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, or "Chemical Ali" is holding up there and want to get at him. Ali earned his nickname by overseeing the use of poison gas against Kurdish villagers in 1988.
HINDIYA FIREFIGHT
A fierce firefight broke out between US and Iraqi forces around a bridge over the Euphrates River at Hindiya, 80km south of Baghdad, US officers told Reuters.
Among Iraqi prisoners taken was an officer who said he was from the Nebuchadnezzar Division of the Republican Guard -- a claim that
surprised US commanders who said they had believed this division to be based much further to the north.
Colonel John Peabody of the US Third Infantry Division told a Reuters correspondent near Karbala, 10km from Hindiya, that one American soldier had been lightly wounded and that the Iraqis had taken dozens of casualties.
Further south, US marines scoured the outskirts of the city of Nassiriyah street by street to eliminate Iraqi fighters.
HILLA PUSH
The number of US troops involved in fighting around Imam Aiyub did not seem enough for a major push to Hilla and beyond, said a Reuters reporter. Hilla, population about 300,000, is the main city remaining between Imam Aiyub and Baghdad.
Further east, a separate advance by US marines appears to have been halted while troops try to consolidate supply lines and tackle Iraqi forces mounting guerrilla attacks on their columns.
MOSUL TARGET
Coalition warplanes bombed Iraq's main northern city of Mosul at dawn yesterday, said the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera.
Some 450km north of Baghdad, Mosul has been the target of coalition air strikes every day since March 21 as the US and Britain attempt soften up defences ahead of the long-awaited opening of a second front in the north. BASRA BATTLE
The battle for Basra has begun in earnest with hundreds of British Royal marines launching a major assault to secure a suburb southeast of Iraq's southern capital Basra, officers said.
Some 600 men from 40 Commando
attacked Abu Al Khasib on Sunday in the first all-out British assault by a full commando since the Falklands War in 1982 and the operation was to continue yesterday.
It was intended to encourage Saddam Hussein's opponents to rise up against his regime and to show that coalition forces were serious about taking the city, which has resisted since the war began, and toppling his government.
British troops suffered an unknown number of injuries, some serious, although at least 300 enemy prisoners of war were taken and a number of Iraqi tanks, armoured troop carriers and bunkers destroyed.
But the Iraqis in the Basra region counter-attacked later in the day when three patrol vessels attacked a Royal Marine landing craft on the Basra canal, 20 miles (30 kilometres) to the south.
The British vessel was hit and set alight by a rocket-propelled grenade and four of its crew were slightly injured. One of the Iraqi vessels was then hit by British forces with two Milan anti-tank missiles and sunk.
Whereas British forces have staged raids into Basra in Warrior armoured vehicles over the last few days, the infantry assault on Abu Al Khasib was quite different -- a direct attempt to secure a significant suburb which houses 30,000 people.
Under the name Operation James, three rifle companies, each consisting of more than 120 men, advanced at first light aiming to trap Iraqi forces up against the Shatt Al-Arab waterway.
To the east and the west blocking positions stopped the Iraqis from escaping.
The marines were supported by Challenger II main battle tanks and Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles while overhead attack helicopters flew combat patrols and artillery fired barrage after barrage of support fire.
British AS90 self-propelled howitzers were called in to deal with 21 Iraqi vehicles -- some believed to be T55 tanks -- to the north of the Shatt Al-Arab which could have posed a threat by providing Iraqi reinforcements.
Allied drones had spotted the buildup of armour and after the AS90 barrage all 21 vehicles were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
As the soldiers from 40 Commando advanced they were engaged time after time by enemy snipers and from bunker positions. At least one Dushka 12.7mm heavy machine gun was reported to have opened up before it was silenced.