Baghdad by Monday

Senior British and US commanders today predicted that allied forces could be in Baghdad by Monday. The claim came after US marines captured a key section of the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

More than 250 Iraqi troops gave themselves up to US soldiers of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Umm Qasr.

The US troops were under British command. Colonel Steve Cox said the port city would give them control of virtually all access to Iraq by sea. Britain's 3 Commando Brigade and Royal Navy ships were part of the coalition forces that launched the assault.

The UK's 7th Armoured Brigade was said to be involved in fierce fighting today. British forces fired 50 Tomahawk missiles at targets in Baghdad.

The commander of Britain's 45,000 troops in the Gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, said the war was reaching its critical stage. "Any war fighter will tell you it is the second 24 hours that are really crucial. That is the time that really makes progress," he said.

Tony Blair said the campaign was going well, but warned the public not to expect victory overnight. He will meet his war cabinet

tomorrow.

There was growing speculation this afternoon that Saddam and one of his sons were killed or injured in the first bombing raids on Baghdad, despite Iraqi denials. One US official said: "The preponderance of the evidence is he [Saddam] was there when the building blew up."

After being pinned down in a two-hour firefight US troops this afternoon moved into the new port area of Umm Qasr. They had to call in British artillery fire to clear their path, and a dozen helicopters brought reinforcements.

Marines raised the US flag over the new port but later removed it. No reason was given but Washington has consistently stressed invading US forces want to liberate Iraq, not occupy it. Troops were today scouring the huge new

port for Iraqi soldiers who might be hiding.

The old port, about one mile away, remained in Iraqi hands but allied commanders were confident of its inevitable fall. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said: "The Iraqis are not simply giving up in the way that some commentators have suggested that they would. And our forces are fighting."

In a seaborne assault, British commandos captured the Al Faw peninsula near Umm Qasr, and took control of key oil installations. British troops also raced to around 30 blazing oil wells north of Umm Qasr, set alight by Iraqi forces.

In northern Iraq, troops believed to be US Rangers were reported to have met resistance as they moved into oilfields around Kirkuk. Saddam's elite Republican Guards are understood to have been planning to set the oilfields alight. And in the west of the country, British and American special forces were reported to have cleared the area of mobile Scud missile launchers aimed at Israel, while American forces seized western Iraqi airfields, officials said this afternoon.

As troops, including men from 1 Marine Expeditionary Force, pushed north towards Baghdad, British military spokesman, Group Captain Al Lockwood, said coalition forces could be in the Iraqi capital by Monday. He said: "If I was a betting man, and I'm not, I would say hopefully within the next three or four days."

US Rear Admiral John Kelly said: "We're going to win it and we're going to win it fast."

But the US suffered its first death in combat as a marine was killed, and some of its forces were reported to have run into resistance near Nassiriya on the Euphrates river.

This afternoon White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of Operation Iraqi Freedom: "I think it's important to remember this still can be a long, lengthy, dangerous engagement."

President George Bush said: "We are making progress, staying on task until we achieve our objective, which is to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and free the Iraqi people."

B52 bombers began to take off for the first time from RAF Fairford this morning, after a night of cruise missile attacks on Baghdad. Several key buildings were devastated. US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned of more to come, saying: "It will be of a force and scope and scale that has been beyond what has been seen before."

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he hoped "shock and awe" tactics would not be needed but added: "It remains to be seen."

The Iraqi regime today offered a reward to anyone who shoots down an allied aircraft or kills or captures an enemy.

In a further sign of French anger at the US-led attack, its foreign ministry rejected US demands to expel Iraqi diplomats from Paris.