Baghdad
Waving at the traffic
The US military say that for the first time, their troops have entered Baghdad, although the Iraqis have denied this.
The United States said at least 20 tanks and 10 armoured vehicles drove on a motorway through a suburb of the Iraqi capital before linking up with troops at the airport which they are reported to have occupied.
A US General, Victor Renuart, said the incursion into Baghdad had been a clear statement of the ability of the coalition forces to move into the city at times and places of their choosing. But he added that fight was far from over.
Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to attack US and British forces across the country to relieve pressure on the besieged capital of Baghdad.
The appeal came in a speech read on television by his Information Minister, Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf.
Further US airstrikes were called in to subdue remnants of the Iraqi defences at the airport.
A US tank comander was shot and killed there and two other soldiers were wounded early today when they encountered intense Iraqi fire.
Dozens of Iraqi military vehicles were seen burning on the city streets as the US forces drove by with little opposition.
It followed a night of bombing aimed at the south of the Iraqi capital, where residents had a second night of power failure.
Search of possible WMD site
US Marines were digging up a suspected chemical weapons hiding place in the courtyard of an Iraqi girls' school in a town southeast of Baghdad.
The Marines said a man who described himself as an ex-member of the Iraqi special forces said a group of men had knocked down a wall of the school two months ago, hidden something and concreted it over in the course of three nights.
