US forces attacked Republican Guard positions on the southern approaches to Baghdad yesterday and colossal air strikes pounded the city, ratcheting up the pressure on President Saddam Hussein.
With fighting raging near the site of ancient Babylon and at various other points along the Euphrates river, advance units of the US and British invasion army were reported to be about 50 miles from Baghdad - the closest they have been to the capital.
"We're coming. Where the \ regime is, we're coming," Brig-Gen Vincent Brooks said at the US Central Command in Qatar, adding that some elite Iraqi units were in serious difficulty.
Iraq remained defiant and Saddam appeared on television alongside his two sons. It was the first time that his eldest son, Uday, had been seen on video since the hostilities began on March 20th, but it was not clear when the footage was taken.
An array of missiles and bombs fell on targets around Baghdad as the US attempted to wear down its defences ahead of an eventual assault on the city by forces moving up through the desert.
Three huge explosions shook the city-centre in the afternoon. One hit a presidential palace used by Saddam's second son, Qusay, who commands the Republican Guard, causing a cloud of white smoke to rise up from the battered complex.
The air strikes came after what sounded like a big artillery barrage on the city's southern edge. Jets screamed at low level through anti-aircraft fire as explosions echoed from the south and west.
US officers said that Iraqi militia and Republican Guard units suffered heavy losses in fierce fighting near the towns of Hindiya and Hilla on the approaches to Baghdad.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Naji Sabri, hurled insults at the US and British "mercenaries", predicting that they would die in the desert. "With every passing day, they are sinking deeper into the mud of defeat and their losses are increasing," he declared.
In the north of Iraq, US planes bombed targets in and around the city of Mosul. South of Baghdad, US troops called in air strikes to try to break the resolve of the Iraqi defenders, who hit back with tank rounds, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
At Hindiya, Iraqi prisoners taken in the fighting included an officer who said he was from the Nebuchadnezzar Division of the Republican Guard, thought to have been based much further north. Brig-Gen Brooks said this might indicate that the Iraqis were bringing in reinforcements or replacing losses.
The death of an American soldier near Hilla raised the US casualty toll in the war to at least 46 dead, with another 17 missing. Britain has lost 25 dead, one more than in the 1991 Gulf War. Only five have been killed in action, while 15 have died in accidents and five by "friendly fire".
Iraq has said that almost 600 of its civilians have been killed and more than 4,500 wounded. It has not listed military casualties.
US troops raced towards Baghdad early in the war, but left behind towns from where Iraqi paramilitaries have tried to disrupt supply lines which stretch about 235 miles from Kuwait. Some US units have now turned back south to try to quell the resistance, which has proved stronger than expected.
Marines who had been heading north towards Kut and Baghdad yesterday turned back and raided the town of Shatra, north of the key city of Nassiriya. Hundreds of Iraqis, shouting "Welcome to Iraq", were said to have greeted the Marines as they entered the town. The glowing reception was a tonic for soldiers who have not been greeted with the warmth they had expected after US and British leaders assured them that the Iraqi people were waiting to be freed from repression under Saddam. "It's not every day you get to liberate people," said one delighted Marine.
Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire, travelling with the US Marines, said that they were targeting Iraqi officials commanding lightly-armed forces which have attacked US supply convoys. Among those being sought in Shatra was Ali Hassan al-Majid, or "Chemical Ali", who is commanding the southern sector. Majid, a feared cousin of Saddam, earned his nickname for overseeing the use of poison gas against the Kurds in 1988.
As US and British troops struggle to overcome forces loyal to Saddam across the southern half of Iraq, their planes enjoy complete control of the skies. Long-range B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers joined forces in the early hours of yesterday to target communication and command centres, shaking buildings across Baghdad as their bombs struck.
The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad announced that it had sent would-be suicide-bombers to Baghdad and Iraq said that 4,000 willing "martyrs" from across the Arab world were already there.
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said yesterday that the war on Iraq would have "horrible consequences" and produce "100 new bin Ladens".
With humanitarian aid just starting to trickle into Iraq, British troops opened the taps on a hastily-built water pipeline in the southern port of Umm Qasr - one of the few Iraqi towns controlled by the invasion force.