The US-led forces will attack Baghdad in the next 48 hours, British press reported today, quoting US officials.

According to ABCnews o­nline, the coalition forces are poised for an "imminent" attack o­n Baghdad that is likely to begin within 48 hours.

The report reported that The Times newspaper saying the "big push" for Baghdad will begin with an intensive artillery bombardment supported by close air cover, before the main body of troops steps forward.

The assault is likely to start to the south-west of Baghdad with an initial strike to breach Iraq's elite Medina division's lines north of Karbala and head o­n to the capital, it says.

"Intensive air strikes o­n the front lines of Republican Guard units had approximately halved their capability, setting the stage for a frontal ground attack within 48 hours," the Financial Times was quoted as reporting.

Battle plans ready

ABCnews

also said that reports of the major ground offensive appeared in several other British newspapers, with some quoting senior military officials saying the action would begin within hours.

The reports come as a senior US defence official in Washington says US troops have fought Iraq's elite Republican Guard south of Baghdad for the first time in the 13-day old war.

CNN

also reported that the invading forces have started a major ground offensive against at least two Republican Guard divisions -- the Medina and Baghdad -- south of the Iraqi capital.

The network reported Pentagon officials saying that US forces are engaging Iraqi Republican Guard troops in a major fight in Karbala.

US military officials are also saying coalition forces in the field have begun receiving a battle plan suggesting the focus of the ground war in Iraq soon will shift to Baghdad.

While the plan for a ground battle in Baghdad is apparently underway, the coalition forces continued bombarding the Iraqi capital overnight and early today.

CNN

reported that several explosions began at about 4.00am today (9.00am Malaysian time) and continued for at least 30 minutes. Huge plumes of smoke drifted into the night sky as the sounds of heavy explosions echoed through the city.

Abu Dhabi Television reported some of the explosions hit central Baghdad near the Tigris River, near the Ministry of Information, which has been a target of repeated strikes by coalition fighters.

Human shields bombed

Meanwhile, CNN also reported Iraq's information minister accusing US forces of "indiscriminately" killing their own citizens in a bus attack and killing nine Iraqi children in a central neighborhood of Babylon.

"Yesterday, an American warplane attacked two buses o­n the highway between Baghdad and Ahman," Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf told reporters.

"Those people o­n those two buses are human shields coming to participate in defending civilian installations like water sanitation stations, electricity generation stations, and so o­n."

Sahaf also said that coalition bombing of Baghdad yesterday morning killed five Iraqi civilians and wounded 25 others.

On the battlefront, the Iraqi official was reported as saying that the "Iraqi troops and the Iraqi fighters are in control of all the places".

He added that Iraqi fighters destroyed seven tanks and had shot down o­ne Apache helicopyter, while the Fedayeen, forces loyal to Iraq President Saddam Hussein, destroyed seven coalition personnel carriers near Najaf.

POW rescued

In another development, CNN reported that an announcement by the Central Command that it had rescued a US prisoner of war in southern Iraq.

No details of the rescue were given but a relative confirmed to CNN the POW was Army private . Jessica Lynch, 19, who had been listed as missing after an ambush near Nasiriya o­n March 23.

Reuters

quoted another family member as saying that "she's alive and well", from the family home in Palestine, West Virginia, and declined to discuss reports she had suffered gunshot wounds.

Lynch's rescue came after a day of intensifying fighting in Iraq.

Washington Post

reported "tank by tank, bunker by bunker and sometimes house by house, US troops chipped away at Iraqi defenses today as convoys of reinforcements and equipment rolled northward from Kuwait in preparation for the coming attack o­n Baghdad".

Smiling civilians

The Post reported of an in intense ground battle near Karbala, about 80 kilometers south of Baghdad, where the Republican Guard's well-trained and well-equipped Medina Division has been under heavy air bombardment.

Battles also were reported around Diwaniyah, as fighting shifted eastward and across the Euphrates River. US Marines killed at least 80 Iraqi soldiers and took more than 40 prisoners in an eight-hour battle that saw Iraqis firing from buildings, dugouts, holes and behind buses.

The daily also reported the US military as saying that it had captured Najaf, another key Euphrates River city.

"Iraqi fighters appeared to retreat in the face of overwhelming American firepower, and U.S. troops were met by hundreds of civilians, many of whom smiled and waved at them," said Washington Post correspondent Rick Atkinson.

Meanwhile, in northern Iraq, B-52 heavy bombers and F-16 jets rained bombs o­n Kirkuk, the major city of the region and a center of Iraq's oil industry. Reuters quoted local Kurdish fighters describing it as the heaviest attack there since the start of the war, as the US military stepped up efforts to open up a northern front against President Saddam Hussein's army.