Saddam target, Baghdad takes hit

The US military said it did not know if the air raid had killed Saddam, but said his grasp on the country was fast disintegrating. ‘‘We’re not sure exactly who’s in charge at this particular point in time,’’ US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks declared.

Witnesses said two houses were flattened and four buildings badly damaged by 2,000-pound bombs in the raid on the Mansur district. Nine Iraqis were killed and four wounded.

Aircraft, tanks and artillery pounded the nerve centre of Saddam’s administration in a thundering raid in central Baghdad that began at dawn, meeting only scattered Iraqi return fire.

‘‘It’s raining bombs,’’ said Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul. ‘‘They’re targeting the same area over and over. The place is shaking and there’s smoke rising,’’ she said from the Palestine Hotel where most foreign media are based.

Later a US tank fired into the hotel, killing Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Jose Couso, cameraman for Spain’s Tele 5 television. Nakhoul and two other Reuters journalists were wounded. A US General said the tank had fired a single round to silence small arms and grenade fire from the hotel. Journalists said they had heard no such firing in the vicinity of the hotel.

Al-Jazeera reporter-producer Tarek Ayoub, a Jordanian, was killed during a US air raid, the Arab satellite television said. Another crew member, Zohair al-Iraqi, was hurt when Jazeera’s office near the Information Ministry was hit.

Ambulances raced through the streets, ferrying casualties to already overwhelmed hospitals. Aid agencies said the hospitals were running low on life-saving medicines as civilian casualties mounted.

Confusion and fear gripped the capital, where few telephones are working. Residents desperately questioned journalists on the progress of US forces, or tried to get messages to relatives abroad via the few foreign aid agencies still operating.

The US military said it was expanding its presence in Baghdad and had met no organised resistance.

Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire said US Marines moved street by street through east Baghdad, meeting small arms fire from Iraqi irregulars but a welcome from some residents. ‘‘Thank you, Mr Bush,’’ cried one lady dressed in black.

‘‘A vice is closing in on this regime, and as the vice closes their time is running out,’’ said US Lt Mark Kitchens.

Brooks said US forces had thrust into Baghdad from the north and south in what appeared to be the final battle for Saddam’s capital.

US special forces in the north of Iraq were preventing Iraqi troops moving south towards Tikrit, Saddam’s birthplace or Baghdad, Brooks said at Central Command in Qatar.

Two Abrams tanks rolled onto the capital’s Jumhuriya bridge over the Tigris river in a show of muscle to cow forces still loyal to Saddam.

But Iraq’s ever-defiant information minister said Iraqi forces would ‘‘tackle and destroy’’ the invaders. ‘‘They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks,’’ Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told reporters at the Palestine Hotel.

An Iraqi missile shot down an A-10 Warthog ground attack plane in action near Baghdad international airport, which is held by the Americans, Brooks said. The pilot was rescued.

Iraqi state television went off the air. It did not broadcast its regular news bulletin, showing only old footage of Saddam. Baghdad radio also went silent for a while. The US military indicated that it had targeted the transmitters.

A spokesman in Kuwait said a US-led civil administration would start work in Iraq on Tuesday when a team of about 20 officials deploys in the southern port of Umm Qasr.

The mission of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) is to provide humanitarian assistance, work on reconstructing Iraq and pave the way for the creation of an interim Iraqi government.

ORHA is headed by retired General Jay Garner, who will report to US war commander General Tommy Franks.

A British military spokesman said a tribal leader would help form a new leadership in Iraq’s southern province after British forces seized Basra, Iraq’s second city, on Monday. Residents demanded the British stamp out rampant looting.

(Reuters)