Sky clears, troops rain

This correspondent later saw about 100 US soldiers and two transport helicopters that had landed at the Harir airfield, 75 km northeast of Arbil.

Kurdish fighters were seen helping the Americans. Only 1,000 paratroopers have landed so far, but the US said they would support ‘‘a robust flow of follow-on forces’’.

Three mighty explosions hit central Baghdad in the afternoon after dozens of blasts jangled the nerves of sleepless residents overnight, Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul reported. US Marines driving towards Baghdad treated enemy wounded on Thursday and searched the blood-stained luggage of Iraqis killed inside a bus by armoured units earlier.

Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire counted four corpses outside the bus and Marines said another 16 lay inside. All the bodies were men, in civilian or military clothes, with papers that appeared to identify them as Iraqi Republican Guard.

The raids followed carnage on Wednesday when 15 civilians were killed by what witnesses described as a twin US missile strike on a market area.

A US official said errant US weapons might have been to blame for the blasts. Issuing the Iraqi casualty figures, Health Minister Umeed Midhat Mubarak said 36 civilians had died in air raids on the capital in the past 24 hours.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Lebanon’s As-Safir newspaper that the invasion of Iraq was angering the Arab world and would fail. His Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, said he was working to stop the war, but was finding it hard going. ‘‘I see matters are getting more complicated and I can’t imagine a solution,’’ Mubarak declared.

Iraq also fired a missile at Kuwait but it was intercepted by a Patriot missile, a Kuwaiti Defence Ministry spokesman said. A US official said the better weather would allow more operations. US-led forces smashed a column of Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles that tried to move South from Basra overnight.

The arrival of paratroopers from Italy is a move to threaten Baghdad from the North. Turkey threw a spanner into US plans by refusing to let up to 62,000 American troops cross its territory into Iraq.

A British Defence source said the first priority of the paratroops was to bolster Kurdish lines, not to attack Baghdad. US and British troops have battled Iraqis all over the South experiencing setbacks that have included helicopter crashes, ‘‘friendly fire’’ casualties and hit-and-run raids on supply lines.

Truck convoys hauling food and ammunition to combat troops look increasingly like a chink in the invasion force’s armour. US and British forces say they have suffered 42 dead and four missing, in combat and accidents.

Bush was due to discuss war strategy with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Camp David later in the day.

The first humanitarian aid has only dripped into Iraq and plans to ship food in through Umm Qasr were delayed by another day after a mine was found near the port. (Reuters)