Compiled by Joe Humphreys
Day 16: At a glance
1. Airport seized: Baghdad International is taken by US troops, causing civilians to flee. Iraq threatens to hit back with "non-conventional" means, and "martyrdom operations". Saddam Hussein - or a look alike - is shown on TV walking the streets. Heavy bombing, small arms and artillery fire heard later throughout the city.
2. Guards surrender: Nida division of the Republican Guard stops fighting, and 2,500 Guards from another division surrender, says US.
3. Suicide bomb: Two Iraqi women carry out suicide car-bombing near the Hadithah Dam, which kills them and three soldiers.
4. Chemical weapons: US forces discover what they say is an Iraqi "training school" for nuclear, chemical or biological warfare in the western desert. American troops also claim to find thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and documents in Arabic on how to wage chemical warfare at south Baghdad industrial estate.
5. Journalist killed: In vehicle accident, Michael Kelly (46), editor-at-large for The Atlantic Monthly magazine and a Washington Post columnist, becomes the first US journalist to die in the conflict. His death brings to five the number of media personnel killed, one more than the total number who died in the Gulf War 12 years ago.
6. Street battles: British forces continue fighting militiamen on edge of Basra. Troops distribute written pledge from Prime Minister Tony Blair that a postwar Iraq would be run by Iraqis, not Allies.
7. Aid arrives: UN humanitarian workers re-enter Iraq for the first time since their withdrawal on the eve of the war, establishing a foothold at the southern port city of Umm Qasr.
Britain: Prime Minister Blair says the US had no plans to attack Syria or Iran.
Ireland: US announces President Bush will meet Blair in Belfast early next week.
Media watch: EU opinion polls:
Seventy per cent of Belgians want the US-led war on Iraq stopped before the demise of Saddam Hussein, according to a poll published in the daily Le Soir yesterday. Some 71 per cent of those surveyed expressed dislike for America compared to 79 per cent for Iraq. Around two thirds of Greeks said Iraq under Saddam posed no threat to international peace and stability. In a poll published yesterday, 95 per cent of Greeks said they opposed the war.
One in three Germans want the Allies to pursue the war against Iraq to its conclusion, according to a survey in Bildwoche magazine. However, a majority - 59 per cent - said they wanted the war stopped. More than half the Austrians questioned for a news magazine poll said they feared the assault on Iraq could spark a world war. A Daily Telegraph poll showed public support for the war in the UK steady at 55 per cent - up 1 per cent on Monday. Fears remain, however, with 73 per cent of Britons worried about the consequences of the war.
In Russia, meanwhile, over half of those surveyed by the Public Opinion Foundation said they wanted Iraqi victory in the war. Bush's unpopularity in the poll stood at 76 per cent compared to just 17 percent for Saddam.
More Crusading: The Gulf has already seen a flood of Christian imports in the form of prayer supplies for US troops. These include: 10,000 rosaries from the Knights of Columbanus; 10,000 bronze guardian angel pocket medallions from Love and Blessings Inc; and Military Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ "Rapid Deployment Kits", which include a New Testament and Psalms with a camouflage cover (400,000 distributed to soldiers worldwide since 9/11).
Thousands of Marines have also been given a prayer-book for President Bush called "A Christian's Duty". Supplied by In Touch Ministries, it contains a prayer-a-day for the born-again Christian leader. Tomorrow's is: "Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding." A bit late for that, some might say.
English v Arabic: One obstacle Christian missionaries will face when trying to spread their message to Iraqis after the war is the language - as Allied troops have discovered. A Reuters journalist yesterday recorded the following exchange at a Basra checkpoint:
Private Ian Johnstone: "Nahnoo hoonaa limoo saa edu tek". (A translation, as read from an Army leaflet, of "We are here to help you".)
Iraqi driver: "What is he saying. Is it English?"
God-squad:The Crusade starts
As the Allies close in on Baghdad another US-led army is waiting to take their place - evangelical Christians led by Rev Franklin Graham, the man who delivered the invocation at President Bush's inauguration, the son of Billy Graham, and a fierce critic of Islam. His organisation, Samaritan's Purse, has "a well-equipped team" waiting in Jordan for the off.
Likewise, the Southern Baptists, the second largest religious group in the US after the Catholics and the most powerful component of the Christian conservative movement. Both churches say they will provide humanitarian aid with no strings attached - this despite Graham's description of Islam as a "wicked, violent" religion, as different from Christianity "as lightness and darkness".