Large explosions and anti-aircraft tracer fire lit the night skies over Baghdad early Tuesday morning, with at least five bombing waves hitting the capital since darkness fell.

According to CNN , among the buildings destroyed Monday was an Iraqi air force complex. Also targetted was the Saddam International Airport and towards the Republican Guard units.

Interational news agency Associated Press said the US Air Force flew more than 1,500 sorties over Iraq o­n Monday. AP quoted a defense official as saying that so far, 80 percent of the bombs and missiles used by the Air Force have been guided by lasers, radar, satellites or video cameras.

In comparison, in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, fewer than 10 percent of the bombs dropped were so-called "precision-guided" munitions.

Won't be a short war

CNN

also reported a warning by the Iraqi ambassador to the UN Mohammed Aldouri that the war against his country could last for years.

"I don't think it'll be a short war," ambassador Aldouri told CNN . "If the Americans will not stop this aggression, the war will continue for years."

He added that throughout Iraq, its citizens have joined the fight. "We'll see a unified society, a unified army," he said.

However the progress made by the coalition forces was described by the US commander General Tommy Frank as rapid and dramatic, and filled with some "terrific fire fights".

BBC

reported that the attacks have already led to the loss of a US Apache helicopter, brought down in Karbala, south of Baghdad, and two US pilots have been shown o­n Iraqi TV.

Peasants prize catch

The Iraqis authorities say that a farmer shot down the Apache helicopter o­n Monday. Iraqi television showed pictures of two men described as the pilots, prompting condemnation from the US for violating regulations o­n war.

The Iraqi Government however assured that the said men would be treated as prisoners of war under the rules of the Geneva Convention. Pentagon officials named the missing crew as Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young, 26, and Chief Warrant Officer David Williams, 30.

According to the AFP news agency, quoting the Iraqi information minister Mohamed Said al-Sahhaf, peasants in Karbala shot down two Apache helicopter.

"A small number of peasants shot down two Apaches. We have shown the images of o­ne of them o­n Iraqi television and we may show images of the pilots of the two aircraft or we may not show them," Sahhaf taunted.

"We have a two-man crew missing," confirmed General Franks, but denying Iraqi reports that the craft had been shot down by farmers, and that two choppers had been lost. He told reporters that 3,000 Iraqi prisoners had been taken thus far, but expressed concern with the fate of a handful of American POWs whose convoy was ambushed in the Iraqi desert over the weekend.

The new agency also quoted General Franks as saying that the coalition lead formations were now less than 100 kilometers from Baghdad.

Ground forces progressing

According to a AP report of a news conference in Pentagon, US Apache helicopters attacked Saddam's Republican Guard forces arrayed around Baghdad.

The agency also reported that according to defense officials at the Pentagon, the Apaches encountered heavy groundfire during their assault o­n the Medina armored division. o­ne official said many Apaches were hit by fire, but managed to kill about 10 Iraqi tanks before cutting off their attack.

On the progress of the ground forces, Pentagon officials are saying that the US-led forces have not gotten into direct firefights with Republican Guard forces.

The report said that the Army's 3rd Infantry Division was within 100 kilometers of the capital, battling sandstorms more than Iraqi fire as it neared the approaches to Baghdad.

However the ground attack o­n Baghdad may be delayed a few days as bad weather, including sandstorms, closes in.

The advance of long columns of thousands of vehicles was aided by heavy air protection that wiped out a column of Iraqi armor at o­ne point and sent some of Saddam's outer defenses withdrawing toward the capital. The convoy passed bombed anti-aircraft guns, empty foxholes and berms dug for tanks that had been abandoned.

War casualties

As the war entered into the fifth day, 39 US and British military personnel have been confirmed killed.

Ten Marines were killed in combat o­n Sunday in Nasiriya, home to key bridges across the Euphrates River in southern Iraq. The coalition forces continued shelling the city yesterday and there are still 16 Marines considered missing.

The fierce resistance from Iraqi troops in the south also resulted in the first British combat death of the war, a soldier killed in action o­n Monday near Basra in southern Iraq. Two British soldiers are missing after an attack Sunday o­n their vehicles in southern Iraq.

US and coalition planes also struck the northern Iraqi city of Mosul for the third night in a row early Tuesday.

In other developments, American TV networks are claiming that intelligence sources tell them that troops around Baghdad could be authorised to use chemical weapons if other means of defense appear to be failing.