Baghdad came under renewed air strikes this morning as the US-led war to topple President Saddam Hussein that has seen over 5,000 bombs dropped onIraq entered its second week.
In the United States, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair started a two-day summit at Camp David with talks on "geopolitical issues" the world would face once the war in Iraq was over, a British officialsaid.
A series of explosions were heard on Baghdad's southern outskirts, the site of a huge military camp that has been attacked by US and British raids as coalition forces advance northward on the Iraqi capital.
Late last night, the impact of three massiveexplosions could be felt in the centre of the capital, where anti-aircraft defences attempted to defend the city.
The renewed air strikes came despite an acknowledgement by the US military that it may have been responsible for the deaths of 15 civilians yesterday, when a housing block in north Baghdad was attacked in an apparent missile attack.
Iraq says 44 civilians have died in air strikes on the capital and hundreds more wounded since the war started on March 20th.
A tally around Baghdad's hospitals yesterday found that close to 1,000 people had received medical care for injuries sustained in the bombardment; it was difficult to ascertain the number ofdead.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that US forces had fired 600Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 4,300 precision-guided bombs in the first six days of the US-led war on Iraq.
Strikes have battered official buildings, including the state television's offices, Saddam's palaces and positions of the elite Republican Guard that block the entrance to the capital.
US army troops claim to have killed some 1,000 Iraqis in three days of fighting around Najaf, 150 kilometres south of the capital.
A US intelligence officer said the Iraqis were tryingto reinforce Najaf with thousands of crack Republican Guard troops from Karbala, 70 kilometres to the north.
CNN quoted US army officers as saying that a column of up to 1,000 Iraqi military vehicles was travelling south from Karbala to Najaf.
Iraq said its Republican Guard yesterday battled coalitionforces for the first time, killing a "large number" of coalition soldiers in the mid-Euphrates region.
Iraq said coalition forces had lost 11 tanks and12 troop transports in the previous 24 hours, and that a British helicopter had been shot down near Iraq's second city of Basra in the south.
The Pentagon says 24 US troops have been killed in the war and 19 wounded. The British military said two of its soldiers have been killed in action, four killed in "friendly fire" and 14 have died in helicopter accidents.
AFP