Blasts rock Baghdad, oil fire rages

UPDATE - US and British planes kept up a relentless barrage on Baghdad today, pounding southern, eastern and central districts of the Iraqi capital.

As night fell on the 11th day of a war aimed at overthrowing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a huge fire raged close to the city centre.

It looked as though Iraqis had set alight an oil-filled trench, sending plumes of thick, black smoke billowing into the sky in a bid to hamper the US and British air strikes.

Shortly after 9pm (0600 NZT), correspondents in the city reported four big explosions close to the centre.

Warplanes rumbled overhead, while anti-aircraft fire rattled from defence positions on the ground.

"The bombing is really heavy and intense," said one Reuters correspondent in the city.

US-led forces have been pounding the southern outskirts of Baghdad for days, targeting areas where Republican Guard units are believed to be dug in to defend the city.

"Warplanes are relentlessly flying overhead at low altitude," Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul said.

"There is heavy anti-aircraft fire."

US President George W. Bush said on Saturday advancing troops were less than 80km south of Baghdad.

Iraqi officials said six civilians were killed and five wounded in an air raid on the industrial area of Zafraniya south of Baghdad on Sunday. Reuters journalists taken to the scene saw wounded people in hospital.

Telephone lines in Baghdad were badly disrupted after repeated strikes on telephone exchanges.

In Washington, the US military said it had bombed the main training site for Iraqi Fedayeen paramilitary forces in eastern Baghdad, a presidential palace, an intelligence complex and surface-to-air missile sites in overnight strikes.

"The strike enhances the security of coalition air forces conducting missions over the capital city of Baghdad," the military's Combined Forces Air Component Command said.

Reuters journalists in Baghdad said bombs had targeted a complex inside a presidential palace used by President Saddam Hussein's son Qusay. The complex had already been hit by several missiles in the first days of the war.

Iraq says 62 people were killed and 49 wounded in a devastating explosion in a crowded Baghdad market on Friday which it blames on a US attack. The United States is still checking whether its forces were responsible.

Air raids also targeted other key cities.

Reuters correspondent Joseph Logan, watching the strategic oil hub of Kirkuk from a vantage point around 30km to the northeast, heard at least five large blasts from the direction of the city on Sunday afternoon and could see bombers circling overhead.

From Kalak, a village in the Kurdish-ruled zone of northern Iraq from where troops loyal to Saddam were clearly seen on a ridge some 3km across the river Zab, Reuters correspondent Sebastian Alison saw a series of B-52 bombers dropping their loads.

The bombs landed in the direction of the government-held cities of Mosul, some 40km west of Kalak, and Kirkuk, the north's oil capital, to the south of Kalak.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war