1. BAGHDAD: A residential district in the city is hit by a number of explosions killing 15 civilians in a marketplace. The US leaves open the possibility it hit a residential area but said the market was not deliberately targeted. A statement by US Central Command said the planes' target had been Iraqi missile sites less than 300 feet from civilian homes. Huge column of Republican Guards stream out of Baghdad towards US forces near Najaf.
2. NASSIRIYA: Iraqi resistance halted the advance of US marines 40 km north of the city. Marines report finding caches of gas masks, protective gear and nerve agent antidotes in a hospital near the city.
3.NAJAF: Around 1,000 Republican Guard troops head towards US forces massed near the southern Iraqi city. US troops fight a fierce battle with Iraqi forces for control of a bridge over the Euphrates River close to Najaf. Around 1,000 casualties so far around the city.
4. KUT: Large numbers of marines gather in preparation for battle with Republican Guard division. Around 25 Iraqi dead bodies on roadside just outside the city.
5. BASRA: British forces poised to enter Iraq's second largest city after Iraqi troops reportedly mortared civilians to quell an anti-government uprising. Iraqi tanks storm out of the city to fight the British. Dozens of US lead sorties of air strikes are called in to blitz the column.
6. KARBALA: The US Third Infantry Division positioned near the city, the closest coalition forces to Baghdad. Air assaults launched on an Iraqi artillery position north of the city.
7. UMM QASR: Humanitarian aid from Kuwait reaches the city.
8. MOSUL: Explosions heard in the town during air assault. Thousands of civilians flee.
"The usual American cowboy brashness... made many believe that Gulf War II would be concluded over the weekend," declared an opinion piece in yesterday's Indian Express. It added while coalition forces were facing stiffer opposition than expected there was no reason to doubt the final conclusion of the conflict. "Saddam Hussein's regime will in all probability go."
With the death toll on both sides mounting the paper seemed more concerned about the impact the war would have on the world economy. "The joker in the pack would be a desperate attempt by the present Iraqi regime to blow up oil fields. That would be catastrophic for the oil economy and must be prevented at all costs."
The Asian Wall Street Journal said while sandstorms and sporadic attacks had "hobbled" the coalition's move towards Baghdad, US and British forces were set to "shatter" Iraq's strongest military units such as the Medina Division. Iraq's creditors were already "lined up to collect once the war ends".
The Standard in Hong Kong said: "George W Bush may win his dirty little war in Iraq. But will he be able to sustain a durable peace?"
The parading of US prisoners of war on Iraqi television has concentrated the mind of British Prime Minister Mr Blair on the mainly Afghan prisoners still being held in Cuba 18 months after the Americans first detained them.
Mr Blair told the House of Commons yesterday the prisoners must be treated with dignity and that their detention should not continue indefinitely, but added: "There is still information that is checked with people in Guantanamo Bay that is of vital significance in protecting people in Europe."
The US President Mr Bush and Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld have been quick to point out that Iraqi TV's decision to broadcast moving images of the captured US marines and pilots was a contravention of the Geneva Convention. Neither man seemed in the least bit bothered that the US had done exactly the same to the suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters captured in Afghanistan and taken to Cuba.
The only difference was those prisoner's were blindfolded and chained in a manner which made standing up properly impossible.
On Tuesday the British Daily Mirror ran a front page photo of two downed US helicopter pilots being held in Iraq along with the headline: "SICKENING. But what the hell does America expect when they treat PoWs like this". An arrow pointed to a picture of chained and blindfold prisoners in Cuba.
US authorities say Guantanamo Bay currently holds 660 detainees, many arrested in Afghanistan. It describes them as unlawful combatants who can be held indefinitely without trial.
On Tuesday an 18-strong group released from detention in Cuba returned to their homeland. At an impromptu press conference in Kabul, some of the 18 described how they suffered brutal treatment at the hands of Afghan jailers before being transferred to Guantanamo as suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters.
"It took (the Americans) more than a year to realise I am innocent," said one man from Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.
The Irish Times website contains comprehensive and freely available coverage of the war, including breaking news, features, analysis, maps, archives and online polls. Go to www.ireland/focus/iraq/