The coalition forces continued its air assault o­n Baghdad over Sunday night and o­n the northern front, several hundred Special Forces troops were reported to have landed an airstrip in Kurdish-held north Iraq in advance of a new front in the ground war.

US Marines also waged a four-hour firefight with pockets of Iraqi troops in the southern city of Umm Qasr o­n Sunday and the clash ended with a quick air strike from a Harrier jet. A staff sergeant from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit called the incident "effectively over" and said Marines were heading out to pick up prisoners of war.

At the same time, the US-led troops also captured the eastern bridges in Nasiriyah but at a cost of suffering the loss of at least 10 Marines.

Iraq's defense minister said o­n Sunday that American forces driving north toward Baghdad would eventually have to "pay a heavy price in blood" by fighting for Baghdad if they wanted to topple Saddam Hussein.

The New York Times quoted General Sultan Hashim to as saying that to achieve their objective, "they (US) will have to come to the city. And the city will fight them. They say a land fights with its own people."

He warned that when the battle for the Iraqi capital begins, American advantages in high-technology weaponry, and American commanders' preference for attacking the enemy with long-range weapons to avoid casualties, would be minimized, and the Iraqis' strengths, of endurance, willpower and a readiness to fight for their own territory, would prevail.

Major victory

According to the Washington Post , the victory at Nasiriyah was a major step in the US war plan.

"In today's battle, Iraqi regular army units pounded approaching Marines with tanks, artillery and mortars in an effort to retain control of the bridges. Separate militia or paramilitary squadrons dressed in black also sniped at the US troops with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, while Iraqis pretending to surrender ambushed a pair of Marines," reported the Post

The daily reported that the six-hour firefight ended after the Marines called for the support of its air armada and had managed to destroy 10 Iraqi T-55 tanks as well as an artillery battery and an anti-aircraft gun belonging to the republic's 51st Infantry Division. There were no estimate of enemy casualties.

Heavy casualties

BBC

reported that up to 10 US Marines were killed and 14 others wounded in the heavy fighting that ensued. Washington Post gave a higher death toll of 16.

BBC

also said that five US soldiers were captured and paraded o­n Iraqi television and that two other British soldiers have gone missing in southern Iraq.

Following the capture of the soldiers, Iraqi television broadcast pictures of the bodies of several American soldiers and their wrecked vehicles, as well as interviews with five captured survivors of the ambush - o­ne of them a woman. ( left )

The Iraqis also said that they have killed 25 Americans in the area and destroyed 30 tanks and armoured vehicles across southern Iraq.

According to CNN , US President George W Bush said any Iraqi officials involved in mistreating prisoners "will be treated as war criminals," and Iraqi officials have said that they will abide by the convention.

The Arab satellite television network al Jazeera showed Iraqi television footage of a group of soldiers in Iraqi custody who appeared to be Americans and the bodies of others, including another woman. Pentagon officials said all were alive when captured

Gruesome images

The Washington Post quoted US officials as saying that the prisoners shown in the video were from a supply convoy that was ambushed near Nasiriyah and that they were not Marines but soldiers from an Army maintenance unit.

One sequence of the video shown o­n al Jazeera showed gruesome images of dead soldiers lying o­n the floor of a room the announcer said was a morgue. Two of them appeared to have been shot in the head, although they had multiple wounds so the cause of their death could be open to question. The clothing of the soldiers was in disarray. Another clip showed five Americans, including a woman, under interrogation by Iraqis.

The Iraqis asked the prisoner their names and home towns, and such questions as "Why did you come here?" and "Why do you fight Iraqis?"

In the meantime, coalition forces are investigating a suspected chemical plant in Northern Iraq town of Najaf, about 160 kms south of Baghdad.

Targetting oil cities

On the Northern front, Kurdish officials said that overnight, four US military cargo planes carrying several hundred Special Forces troops landed at an airstrip in Kurdish-held north in advance of a new front in the ground war. There are no confirmation of this from the US officials.

Washington Post

also reported that a convoy of three buses and three trucks carried about 100 US troops into the Halabja Valley near the Iranian border, where two nights of air strikes have targeted an Islamic extremist group associated with al Qaeda.

The air strikes, which a Kurdish official said may have killed more than 100 of Ansar al-Islam's 700 to 900 fighters, were scheduled to continue for at least o­ne more night before ground forces move forward.

US troops will take part in the ground offensive, the Kurdish official said, but declined to say in what numbers. Before today, estimates of U.S. troops in the north ranged from 60 to 130.

Most of the arriving US forces are expected to steer toward the larger war against the government of Saddam Hussein, with Special Forces troops preparing the way for an airborne assault aimed at taking the strategic oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. This morning and again after sunset allied warplanes bombed artillery and rocket positions near Mosul, the Kurds said.

Stray missiles

On Baghdad front, news agency Reuters reported that central Baghdad was rocked early o­n Monday by several very big explosions, with no prior warning from air raid sirens and no sign of anti-aircraft fire.

The news agency said that the blasts were among the biggest to hit the city since US and British bombardments began o­n Thursday. According to CNN , o­ne of the buildings struck was an Iraqi air force building and other targets hit were southeast of the capital and appeared to be buildings struck in previous days.

On other developments, two US cruise missiles misfired and landed in Turkey but defense officials say no o­ne was hurt. This is the second time US missiles have strayed. Over the weekend, Iran claimed that its borders were hit by three US missiles.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Pentagon revealed the identity of the US soldier suspected of the grenade attack o­n fellow soldiers in Kuwait over the weekend. The attack by the suspect, Army Sgt Asan Akbar, resulted in the death of o­ne soldier and 15 others wounded.

Journalist dead

The British news agency ITN said it had "sufficient evidence" to believe its longest-serving correspondent, Terry Lloyd, was killed in southern Iraq o­n Saturday, apparently by coalition fire aimed at Iraqi troops. Two members of Lloyd's team are still missing and unaccounted for. o­ne member escaped Saturday.

The Arab media are reporting that a coalition plane went down in Baghdad and Iraqi crews are searching the Tigris River for the pilot or pilots. The coalition forces officials said they have no reports of a plane downed over Baghdad.

On the Iraq front, the republic is claiming that it has found an Israeli missile in Baghdad and accuses Israel of "taking part in this aggression against Iraq". The Israeli government denied the claim.