Iraqi citizens trying to flee the besieged Basra city in the south of the country are being shot by forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, British military officials said today.

According to a report by the Associated Press agency, Iraqi paramilitary forces fired mortars and machine gunfire o­n a "couple of thousand" Iraqi civilians trying to flee city.

The news agency quoted a spokesperson for the British forces in the Gulf, Lt Col Ronnie McCourt as saying that about two thousand Iraqi civilians came under fire when they had tried to break out of the city.

Basra has a population of 1.3 million and is the second largest city in the republic.

City circled

McCourt added that members of Britain's 7th Armored Brigade were trying to neutralise the fire, evacuate the civilians and treat the wounded, said, a spokesman for British forces in the Gulf.

"We are trying to save the people, return fire and rescue civilians," he was quoted as saying.

According to the report, the British forces have ringed the city in hopes of eliminating units still loyal to Saddam and getting in badly needed humanitarian aid.

On at least three separate occasions, British units and coalition aircraft have fired o­n enemy Iraqi tanks and other armored vehicles that have streamed out of the city.

Bunker-busters unleashed

A report in the CNN reported that two huge "bunker-buster" bombs blasted Iraq's communications center in Baghdad late yesterday.

The report said that the two satellite-guided bunker-buster bombs, dropped by a US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber, rocked a large area of downtown Baghdad and shrouded the city in a thick haze.

CNN quoted the US Central Command as saying that a B-2 Spirit "targeted and struck a major link in Iraq's national communication network" located o­n the east bank of the Tigris River in downtown Baghdad.

Western reporters based in Baghdad were also reported as saying that Iraq's International Communications Center, which operates Iraq's phone system, was ablaze after it was pounded.

Buildings near Iraq's information ministry appeared to be hit, as well as the Al Salam palace of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said the report.

Protective suit uncovered

Meanwhile, BBC reported that UK troops have uncovered about 100 gas masks and protective suits in a command post in the Rumaila oil field.

The report quoted British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon as saying that this discovery "categorically" proved Iraq was ready to use chemical and biological weapons.

Hoon said it had first become known from Iraqi PoWs that protective gear had been issued to troops in the south of the country. But he said fresh evidence turned up over the last few days had proved the regime's willingness to use weapons of mass destruction.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said that the overnight US-led bombing had killed 26 civilians in the central city of Najaf and another seven in Baghdad.

Civilian casualties

News agency Reuters reported that according to Saeed, the raids also wounded 60 people in Najaf, and 92 in the capital.

The report also said that since the war began, 116 people had died and 695 had been injured in Basra.

"The enemy hit civilian areas in Najaf before our valiant forces successfully beat them back. Until last night, the toll from this bombing was 60 wounded and 26 martyrs," Sahaf was quoted as saying.

The minister was also reported as saying that Iraqi forces destroyed 33 tanks and armored cars and killed four US-British troops o­n Thursday in fighting in southern Iraq.