About 1,000 US paratroopers from the173rd Airborne Brigade parachuted into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq under the cover of darkness while bombs continued to rain o­n Baghdad.

According to CNN today, military officials characterised the region where the drop occurred as "semi-permissive," meaning it was not hostile.

An airlift of elements of the US 1st Infantry Division, equipped with Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, followed the airborne drop and was in progress.

Coalition forces had hoped to transport vehicles and troops overland, but failed to reach an agreement with Turkey about using its bases and airspace.

According to a report by Associated Press, the paratroopers immediately seized an airfield for a new front against Saddam Hussein.

"Jumping from low-flying planes into the Iraqi night, an estimated 1,000 paratroopers landed near an airstrip in Kurdish-controlled territory less than 30 miles from the Turkish border," said the report..

In Baghdad, a volley of explosions rocked the capital at about 3am (8am Malaysian time) and an Al-Jazeera footage showed smoke billowing from a multi-storey building.

A pilot returning from a bombing run to the USS Constellation told CNN that an Iraq airfield near Baghdad where Russian made MiG fighters are based was among the targets.

Conflicting reports

In central Iraq, there were conflicting reports about whether large numbers of Iraqi Republican Guard troops were moving out of Baghdad toward the lead elements of the US 3rd Infantry Division.

Top US military officials in Washington and at Central Command headquarters in Qatar said field reports seemed to be based o­n inaccurate intelligence and that officials could find no evidence of such an operation.

In Washington, British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived for talks with President Bush at Camp David.

Earlier, Bush warned that while the war "is far from over," the "day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime ... is drawing near."

"As they approach Baghdad, our fighting units are facing the most desperate elements of a doomed regime," Bush told troops in a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

'Barbaric' invasion

In related developments, Iraq's UN ambassador Mohammed Aldouri told the Security Council that his people are being subjected to a "barbaric" invasion.

Describing the coalition forces' actions as "criminal", he said the war has claimed thousands of casualties, among them women, children, and the elderly.

Iraq's Information Ministry claimed that the aerial assault o­n Baghdad yesterday had destroyed a market, killing 15 civilians.

Photographers from international news agencies confirmed seeing an undetermined number of dead and injured people, apparently civilians, and burned vehicles in the capital city.

Iraq had reported 78 civilian deaths since Monday as a result of bombing raids but this could not be verified.

At the Pentagon, Major General Stanley A McChrystal denied that coalition forces targetted the marketplace, but could not say whether the destruction was the result of Iraqi weapons or US missiles that went astray.

He suggested the Iraqis firing at allied aircraft could be responsible for the casualties.

"Another explanation could be the triple-A fire [anti-aircraft artillery] or surface-to-air missiles that missed their targets and fell back into the marketplace area," he said.

Miscalculated strength

Concerning Saddam's elite Fedayeen unit, Pentagon officials said US war planners may have miscalculated the strength and capability of these paramilitary fighters.

Fighters from the unit along with members of the ruling Baath Party and other security forces, have launched several attacks against US and British forces for a week.

"We may have underestimated that they were dispersed to so many places across Iraq to enforce regime discipline," the Pentagon official said. "It's clear now they dispersed sometime before the war began."

Members of the group have caused problems for coalition forces in some areas, where they have disguised themselves as civilians to ambush troops or pretended to surrender and opened fire - acts the United States have called "serious violations of the laws of war".