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The following are the latest developments on the battlefield in Iraq:
In and Around Baghdad:
Two US soldiers and two journalists were killed and 15 others injured on Monday when an Iraqi missile hit a US tactical operations center on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, a US army officer said.
Major Mike Birmingham told reporters that of the 15 wounded two are in critical conditions. He did not disclose the nationalities or affiliation of the two reporters who were killed in the attack.
US troops seized key buildings in the center of the Iraqi capital on Monday, including a major presidential palace and the Information Ministry, reports said.
Explosions and gunfire were heard, black smoke was arising and US warplanes were flying over the city, live pictures of Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television show.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said on Monday that Baghdad is safe and secure and the Iraqi government is in full control of the key government buildings though the US forces claimed they had smashed into the capital.
He said the Iraqi troops are "slaughtering US-British mercenaries" who have dared to attack the presidential palace, the information ministry and the Al-Rasheed hotel on the western bank of Tigris river.
Southern Iraq:
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Monday that the British troops which had already moved into central Basra in southern Iraq earlier in the day will stay.
Hoon told a press conference in London that the British troops would stay in the central part of the Iraqi second largest city to improve "real security."
Thousands of troops poured into Iraq's southern city of Basra and the battle there "is more or less over," reports reaching here quoted a British officer as saying.
"We are covering all the areas of Basra, including the old city. There are soldiers and armored vehicles inside (the old city) right now," Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Blackman of the 7th Armored Brigade told reporters.
"There are 4,000 soldiers, 200 tanks and hundreds of armored vehicles in Basra," he added.
Northern Iraq:
The US-led coalition forces launched the worst air raids on Iraq's northern city of Mosul on Monday in the 19-day war, according to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Satellite Channel.
Huge explosions were heard in the southern part of the city with witnesses guessing an ammunition depot was hit. There has been no confirmation from Iraqi officials.
(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2003)
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