US and British armoured forces are moving deeper into Iraq, surging through sporadic resistance towards the capital Baghdad and reaching the outskirts of the southern city of Basra.
The chief of British armed forces Admiral Sir MichaelBoyce said that the centre of Basra has been surrounded by coalition forces. Defended by a Republican Guard division, Basra is vital to Iraq's economy because it controls the country's oil terminals in the Gulf and only access to the sea.
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US Army 3rd Infantry Division soldiers take a brief stop during their push into Iraq today.
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Tens of thousands of US army infantrymen, Marines and Royal British Marines, backed by artillery, attack helicopters and warplanes, streamed across the border with Kuwait and met little resistance on the war's second day.
A spokesman for British forces says coalition troops may be in Baghdad "within three or four days". Britain and US forces have also taken "several hundred" Iraqi soldiers prisoner, Sir Boyce added.
He also said that seven oil wells in southern Iraq have been set on fire by retreating Iraqi forces, and not around 30 as previously announced.
However, one US marine was killed in action, a US military spokesman said.
Reports also say US and British forces have taken parts of the Gulf port of Umm Qasr where 30 Iraqi soldiers surrendered, and that British Royal Marines commandos had taken the Al Faw peninsula south of the city of Basra.
US Marines raised the US flag over Umm Qasr after taking the installation in the face of only light resistance. The flag has since been taken down.
British Defence Minister Geoff Hoon said Al Faw had been secured but his forces were facing strong opposition as they pressed north towards the port of Basra. "Our forces are in fact already facing some stern resistance at Umm Qasr as I speak," he said. "The Iraqis are not simply giving up in the way that some commentators have suggested that they would. And our forces are fighting".
Colonel Steve Cox, commander of the landing force, also said the peninsula had fallen and that many Iraqi troops had surrendered. "There's guys popping up all over the place," he said.
Iraq earlier denied Umm Qasr had fallen.
In northern Iraq, fierce fighting is being reported around oil fields that US marines are trying to secure.
It was quiet in Baghdad this morning. By contrast, the United States and Britain last night blasted one of Saddam's palaces in the capital. Witnesses in the reported several explosions near government buildings after cruise missiles hit the city. There was relatively little Iraqi anti-aircraft fire.
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One of the targets struck was Saddam's vast Baghdad palace complex on the banks of the Tigris River. Another housed an office of Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz.
President George W. Bush vowed that the US and British troops would "stay on task" until they have disarmed President Saddam Hussein, broken his iron grip on power, and ushered in democracy.
The action was the second round of US attacks after the Iraqi president ignored an ultimatum from Mr Bush to leave the country. The first wave of attack yesterday targeted Saddam and other Iraqi regime leaders.
Agencies