The US-led coalition had now taken "well over 4,000" Iraqi prisoners, a senior commander told a news conference at the headquarters of US Central Command in the capital of Qatar yesterday.
But when asked about Iraqi claims that the deaths of 14 civilians in a Baghdad residential area were the result of a US missile attack, Brig Gen Vincent Brooks said he could not confirm that this was the case although great care was taken in targeting.
He had heard the news report: "We don't have a report that corroborates that, so I can't confirm it. What I can tell you is, as I was telling you on a regular basis, we have a very, very deliberate process for targeting.
"It's unlike any other targeting process in the world. It takes into account all science, it takes into account all capability, and we do everything physically and scientifically possible to be precise in our targeting and also to minimise secondary effects whether it is on people or structures."
When it was put to him that "many hundreds" of Iraqi civilians were being killed by coalition bombs and that, as a result, the Iraqi people could not trust or believe in the coalition, Gen Brooks said he did not accept the premise of the question, adding that atrocities were being committed by the Baghdad regime.
"Iraqi civilians are being killed on the battlefield by Iraqis." Asked if there had, in fact, been a civilian uprising in Basra or if this was just wishful thinking, Gen Brooks said: "What we saw in Basra last \ night is a very confusing situation to say the least. We saw, first, fighting happening within the city between Iraqis, some of them in uniform, some not in uniform.
"We also saw a significant degree of violent activity done by paramilitaries shooting into the town of Basra with mortars primarily, again a disregard for the people living there."
British forces in the area were already conducting operations to try to block off the town and prevent the irregular forces from moving in and out of the town and he believed the people of Basra "have had about enough of what the regime is doing here".
Gen Brooks said Umm Qasr, Iraq's only deep-water port, had been cleared of mines and crucial humanitarian aid would start flowing into the country shortly. "The Khor Abdallah [canal] has been cleared all the way up to the port of Umm Qasr," he said. "That waterway is now open and we intend to start moving vessels in as soon as possible to bring in humanitarian supplies."
The Iraqi Information Minister, Mr Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf had earlier denied the port had fallen under coalition control.
Asked about the number of prisoners now in Allied custody, Gen Brooks said: "I would say we're well over 4,000."
The Red Cross would be able to visit the detainees "at their earliest convenience". He said the discovery of 3,000 chemical suits in a hospital in central Iraq that had been used as an Iraqi base raised concern that the regime was prepared to use chemical weapons. "What we found at the hospital reinforces our concern," he said.
"We are well-prepared to deal with the potential use of chemical weapons."
Asked about reports that a large contingent of Iraq's elite Republican Guard were headed south toward US Marines in central Iraq, Gen Brooks said, "We've not seen any significant movements of the type of force you've described.
"There have been local positionings and survival positionings, but not serious attacks and we certainly remain, we believe, well in control of the situation at hand."
He showed aerial photographs of an Iraqi military vehicle hidden under a bridge and a military base near a mosque and school.
Also shown was communications equipment positioned in ancient ruins marked with the international symbol denoting it as an historic site.