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Burnt US tanks on Baghdad streets, Basra push peaks

STAR DESK
Invading tanks tried to roll into Baghdad, but what remained yesterday are shells of blown-up US tanks on the capital's main roads after they were chased off.
As warplanes flew over the city's sky and dropped bombs, victorious Baghdadis clambered atop the war machines lying impotent and waved Kalashnikovs. They showed "V" signs and chanted slogans in support of their leader Saddam Hussein.
Iraq said four US soldiers were killed in the attack on the probing tanks and urged citizens to remain calm and hold
fire unless told to.
The US took a rather face saving stance saying its tanks tried to test how the Iraqis respond to invasion by entering the capital from the south and then swinging out from the east. They said they have taken a new air strategy that would support its ground forces into Baghdad.
US forces have taken control of highways leading northwest and west out of Baghdad as they try to encircle the capital, military sources said.
The US army's Third Infantry Division reached the Tigris river north of the capital, while the Marines continued
their push towards the capital from the east.
Baghdad streets were crawling with black-clad Fedayeen militia and teenagers with guns, AP reported.
The ferocity of the first engagement on Baghdad ground was also evident by the scene of at least 30 Iraqi tanks now in skeleton after being blown off. Army trucks and other vehicles also littered the wayside.
Republican Guard hunkered down for urban warfare and dug fresh trenches and fortified old ones. Some took over houses close to the city's southern approaches.
The city, in all, was ready to take on any invading forces.
AP said Iraqi tanks, armoured personnel carriers and field artillery were deployed in the capital, facing the western, southern and northern entrances that US forces were believed most likely to use.
"I am not afraid to die," said 16-year-old Thamer Mekki, an eighth-grader in blue jeans who says he learned how to shoot a gun at 14.
"I am doing this for my country," said Mekki, standing guard in the upscale Mansour district.
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BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar said Baghdadis feel tired of the war days without power that entered its 18th day yesterday. They don't like the idea of US or British troops rolling down their city.
Iraq still claims to be in control of Saddam International Airport and the US forces say they control 95 per cent of it.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said 50 US soldiers were killed and six tanks destroyed in the fight over the airport. US claimed 2,000 Iraqi fighters were killed since American troops attacked Baghdad's outskirts.
The US said 79 of its soldiers have been killed since the invasion began.
The Red Cross said Baghdad hospitals were struggling to cope with the wounded and the situation in the city was becoming desperate.
The Iraqi government issued a ban on travel in or out of the city between 6:00pm and 6:00am.
UK TROOPS STORM BASRA Hundreds of British tanks and armoured personnel carriers are pouring into the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
The 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, stormed the city with several thousand troops in an attempt to take it over and secure it.
Three units, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Royal Fusiliers and the Black Watch, have advanced into the city, meeting only "isolated pockets" of resistance, correspondents say. The airport has also been secured.
Later, US commandos also launched an attack on Basra. But Iraq said Basra is still under its control and Republican Guard troops are fighting a fierce battle there.
OTHER MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS The US military says further fighting is expected in Karbala, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Baghdad; the American advance into the town, to stop Iraqi paramilitaries from threatening supply lines which stretch hundreds of kilometres up from southern Iraq, was halted on Saturday.
Iraqis in civilian clothes have also thrown a bomb into a building where marines were taking cover.
TARGET "CHEMICAL" ALI
Early on Saturday, British forces attacked a Baath party building where the Iraqi commander known as "Chemical Ali", who is in charge of the south of the country, was believed to be hiding.
The building which Ali Hassan al-Majid had reportedly been seen entering was hit by both two air strikes and artillery.
On Sunday US Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson said the bodies of al-Majid's bodyguards had been found in the building.
The BBC's Caroline Wyatt, with the British troops, also said sources had suggested there was "good reason" to think he may have been killed, "and that would be very, very significant".
But Iraq brushed aside the suggestion saying that he is very much alive.