Second City Airport Falls to Forces Sweeping Aside Iraqi Resistance

American forces seized a second airport inside Baghdad yesterday and fought back an Iraqi counterattack as they tightened their control of the capital.

US commanders said they had come up against Iraqi T-72 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and surface-to-air missiles, and at one stage faced a serious counterattack.

Iraqi soldiers drove trucks and buses full of fighters across the Tigris river, in the heart of the city, in an attempt to overrun a US position at an intersection in the west. At least 50 Iraqi fighters were killed, one US officer said. Two American soldiers were injured by sniper fire. Three journalists were killed in attacks on the al-Jazeera office and the Palestine Hotel on the east bank of the Tigris.

In a rare strike for the Iraqi forces, an American A-10 Thunderbolt tankbuster aircraft was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over the city yesterday as it flew in low, strafing raids. The pilot ejected and was rescued.

Early today, Washington admitted the loss of a second warplane, an F-15E which went down in Iraq on Sunday. Two airmen were missing.

Troops from the US army's 3rd Infantry Division closed in from the west as the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved in from the east to squeeze the remaining Iraqi forces in the city centre.

Marines took a bridge over the Diyala river, to the southeast of the city, and seized Rashid airport, three miles south-east of the centre. Commanders said this was a "militarily significant" area of the city. Taking the airfield would help the US to secure Baghdad and keep high-ranking Iraqi officials from escaping.

Early yesterday two tanks with the 3rd Infantry Division slowly made their way across the Jumhuriya bridge over the Tigris in the centre of the city, crossing on to the eastern bank for the first time.

American troops, who have flown thousands of reinforcements into the city's international airport, have now almost ringed Baghdad. Troops were trying to cut off all escape routes north to Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and the symbolic heartland for the regime.

American officials at central command in Qatar said they were increasingly breaking down the Iraqi regime.

"We have not been certain for a long time who is in charge of this regime. The leadership structure has been fragmented," said Brigadier-General Vince Brooks, deputy director of operations.

Iraqi soldiers were fighting in small convoys of between 20 and 60 vehicles, but were not mounting coordinated attacks.

In an indication of the sweeping presence of American forces, officials said all air strikes in the city were now being called in by troops on the ground. "A vice is closing in on this regime, and as the vice closes their time is running out," said Lieutenant Mark Kitchens at central command.

Iraq's defiant information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, refused to accept that defeat appeared imminent. He said Iraqi forces would "tackle and destroy" the approaching US forces. "They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks," he said.

In bursts of sporadic resistance Iraqi forces fired mortars at American soldiers but by late last night the fighting had calmed. One pocket of up to 500 Iraqi paramilitaries and Special Republican Guard had tried to stage a counterattack but were swiftly silenced.

"The trucks have been destroyed and most of the people as well," said Major Mike Birmingham of the 3rd Infantry.

Around him Iraqi ambulances ferried the injured to increasingly overwhelmed hospitals. Central command said there were no specific plans to set up new hospitals in Baghdad.

During the day many residents were hunkered down in their homes and there was little traffic on the streets.

North of the city, traffic built up as thousands of people fled the fighting in all sorts of vehicles - buses, trucks, minibuses and pick-ups - with food, clothes, mattresses, blankets and kitchen utensils. Some cars sagged under the weight and others were so battered they broke down on the road, worsening the already bumper-to-bumper congestion.

Long lines formed at petrol stations, some of which ran out of fuel and closed; others were taken over by the military.

Uncollected rubbish piled up in some sections of the city.