Huge explosions reverberated throughout central Baghdad last night in what was one of the most intense nights of US-led bombing yet in the nine-day war.
Iraq said the bombing killed seven civilians in the city and injured 92 others.
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said 26 civilians died in bombing in in the central city of Najaf and 60 others were injured.
A large fire blazed on the west bank of the River Tigris and thick smoke rose on the horizon after dozens of blasts in the eastern and southern fringes of the Iraqi capital today. Friday is the Muslim holy day.
Anti-aircraft fire responded as US missiles hit an area close to government buildings including the ministries of information, planning and foreign affairs.
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US Central Command headquarters in Qatar said that coalition air forces and Tomahawk missiles "took out" a communications centre and command-and-control facilities in the city overnight.As dawn broke over the city of five million, the explosions sounded further away, possibly on the outskirts of Baghdad where units of Saddam's Republican Guard are believed to be dug in.
The Al-Salam presidential palace, first hit last week, suffered fresh damage overnight, and the muezzin of a mosque nearby hurled defiance through its loudspeakers, crying "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
Earlier, the noise of explosions was audible during a live interview given by Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf, who said his country would not be cowed.
"I think it will become obvious to the world that they [US and British forces] have entered [Iraq] with a kind of stupidity based on a simple idea that 'shock and awe' will make Iraqis kneel," he said.
Both daylight and night bombing raids in the past week have battered Saddam's palaces and government and military buildings. Washington and London accuse Saddam of hiding weapons of mass destruction, a charge he denies.
Other air strikes have targeted cities such as Mosul and Kirkuk in northern Iraq.
Iraqi troops have lit giant fires in oil-filled trenches, casting a black pall over Baghdad, hoping the smokescreen will provide protection against air strikes.