Iraqis resist as palaces taken

PRICE OF WAR: U.S. Marines of the 3rd battalion, 4th regiment, evacuate a dead comrade during fighting with Iraqi gunmen as the marines tried to secure a key bridge leading into Baghdad on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital. Four or five Marines were killed on Monday when their Amtrack troop transporter was hit by an artillery shell at a bridge over a canal on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Baghdad (Reuters): U.S. troops stormed the heart of Baghdad on Monday, seizing two presidential palace compounds but losing at least four dead as Iraqi forces fought back.

The U.S. military described the assault by more than 100 tanks and anmored vehicles as a show of force, rather than a final attack on the sprawling city of five million, but they remained in the center of the capital after nightfall.

Baghdad's hospitals battled with a constant stream of dead and injured. Doctors said they were running short of anesthetics and medical equipment.

At Kadhimiya hospital north of Baghdad, doctors told Reuters correspondent Hassan Hafidh they had taken in 18 dead and 142 injured in the last two days, while Kindi hospital near the center took in four dead and 176 injured.

"Surgeons have been working round the clock for the past two days and most are exhausted. Conditions are teriible," said Roland Huguenin-Benjamin, local spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A U.S. armored column blasted into central Baghdad early on Monday with relative case, but two Marines were killed and three wounded in a fierce battle for two river bridges in the east.

Marines said their comrades had died in "friendly fire" when an artillery shell fired by their own side fell short. Iraq said the invaders were committing suicide" at the capital's gates.

Heavy fighting raged in the afternoon and Iraqi forces poured artillery shells into a presidential complex on the west bank of the Tigris river that U.S. forces had seized.

'The Iraqis are definitely fighting back," said Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul from a central vantage point.

A Reuters photographer said shells, apparently American, were landing in the gardens of the luxury Rashid Hotel and around the information ministry.

Iraqi state-run television showed footage of Saddam wearing military fatigues and his son Qusay meeting top aides. It was not clear when the meeting took place.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said there were "strong indications" that Ali Hassan al-Majid, or "Chemical Ali", Saddam's cousin and military colpmander in southern Iraq, was dead. Majid earned his nickname for ordering poison gas attacks on Kurds in the late 1980s.

A Reuters reporter in the capital said Iraqi Republican Guards defended key ministries with rocket-propelled grenades.

U.S. military spokesman Capt. Frank Thorp said he expected to see continuing fighting with Saddam's elite troops.

Thorp added that U.S. forces had set up checkpoints on all major roads of the capital to stop Iraqi military movements.

U.S. National Public Radio reported American forces near Baghdad had found a cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical warheads.

Attributing the report to a top official with the 1st Marine Division, NPR said the BM-21 missiles were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire."

The U.S. and Britain launched a campaign 19 days ago to oust Saddam and rid Iraq of weapons: of mass destruction, which Iraq consistently denied possessing. U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment on the NPR report.

In what appeared a separate incident, a U.S. officer said biological and chemical weapons experts had found a possible storage site for such arms south of the central town of Hindiya.

"Our detectors have indicated something," said Maj. Ros Coffman, a public affairs officer with the U.S. 3rd Infantry.

"This is an initial report, but it could be a smoking gun," Coffman told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker. "It is not as if there is a cloud of gas hanging everywhere endangering soldiers lives. We're talking about a facility."