US forces ‘within 30km’ of Baghdad

• Brooks said US troops had destroyed the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard near Kut, 170 km southeast of Baghdad, and had fought two other Guard divisions. Two huge American bombs exploded close to Kut, sending giant mushroom clouds into the air. For the first time, B-52 bombers used six precision-guided 454-kg bombs spraying armour-destroying bomblets to stop an Iraqi tank column on Tuesday, the military said.

• Bombs also hit central Baghdad, killing several motorists and hitting a Red Crescent hospital. At least five cars had been crushed, with their drivers burned to death inside. Hospital sources said at least 25 people, including medical staff and patients, had been wounded in the daylight raids, which also pulverised buildings in a trade fair.

• Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said Air strikes had killed 24 civilians and wounded 186 in the past 24 hours, with 10 dead and 90 wounded in Baghdad alone. “No matter how many civilians they kill, this will make us even stronger and even more determined to repel the invasion and to defeat them,” Sahaf said.

• Iraqi television said Saddam met officials, including his two sons Uday and Qusay, but showed no footage of the meeting.

• Helicopters and fighter planes strafed Fedayeen militia active in Najaf as British Tornado aircrafts bombed the Baath Party HQ.

• A US spokesman accused Iraqi forces in Najaf of firing from the gold-domed shrine of Ali, one of the holiest sites for Shi’ite Muslims. The Americans did not return fire, he said.

US, Turkey agree on supplies for troops

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday he had agreed with NATO ally Turkey on measures to ship supplies through Turkish territory to US forces fighting in northern Iraq. He saw no cause for Turkey to send its troops into the region. “We have solved all the outstanding issues with respect to providing supplies through Turkey,” Powell told a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.

LA Times fires photographer over faked shot

The Los Angeles Times fired a staff photographer for editing together two photos of a British soldier and a crowd of people outside the Iraqi city of Basra to make the scene more dramatic, the newspaper said on Wednesday. In a front-page editor’s note, the paper said the photo that appeared on Monday’s front page by photographer Brian Walski was actually a digital composition of two photos taken moments apart.