US and British forces advance in conflict 'unlike any in history'

As the coalition juggernaut continued to roll powerfully forward yesterday, the second Gulf War was developing into two quite separate wars.

US and British Marines and armoured forces claimed victories over Iraqi regular troops in one-sided battles west of Basra and on the River Euphrates, opening the route to Baghdad and taking thousands of prisoners.

But a clear pattern was also emerging of a second, less conventional conflict in which diehard supporters of Saddam Hussein – some fighting in civilian clothes – were trying to lure coalition forces into urban street-fighting and desert ambushes. It was unclear whether this represented scattered resistance or a strategic plan by the Iraqi regime which might presage a long and bloody siege of Baghdad in the next few days.

Coalition bombardment of the capital continued around the clock yesterday, but with reduced intensity. Oil-filled trenches around the city were set alight as a gesture of defiance by the regime – and in the apparent belief that the smoke and heat might help to divert the cruise missiles.

Doubts continued to be raised, however, about whether the Iraqi resistance was being organised by Saddam Hussein – or whether he was already dead or seriously injured. Tony Blair and the War Cabinet were told yesterday morning that US and British intelligence believe that President Saddam may have been killed in the first strike on his bunker in Baghdad on Thursday morning.

Tommy Franks, the American four star general commanding allied forces in Iraq, emerged from the seclusion of his own command post yesterday and promised that the campaign would "be unlike any in history" in its application of "overwhelming force".

But he also made it clear that, wherever possible, the coalition troops would by-pass towns and cities, rather than become engaged in the kind of anti-guerrilla fighting that has raged in the key port town of Umm Qasr in the past two days. Soldiers and security police wearing civilian clothes have been firing on US and British Marines who first claimed to have captured the town two days ago.

Coalition forces appeared to have cut off the city of Basra and defeated or accepted the surrender of all regular Iraqi units in the area last night. But military commanders made it clear that no attempt would be made to enter the city. It was necessary to enter Umm Qasr because its port is needed to receive humanitarian aid.

Four US soldiers died when their light vehicles came under rocket fire in a desert ambush as they scouted ahead of the main US armoured force on the road to Baghdad yesterday. Earlier six more British servicemen and one American died when two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters collided in international waters over the Gulf. Iraqi authorities said that two civilians, including a small child, died and more than 200 were injured in the intensive bombardment of Baghdad by US and British cruise missiles and laser-guided bombs on Friday night. There were also fears last night for the safety of the ITN reporter, Terry Lloyd, who was missing after he and his crew of three came under fire in the desert near Basra yesterday. One member of the crew was wounded but escaped. The others were still missing last night.

Speaking in the wake of Friday night's massive bombing of Baghdad in more than 3,000 sorties, General Franks said the campaign would be "characterised by shock, by surprise, by flexibility, by implementation of precision munitions on a scale which we have never before seen and by the application of overwhelming force".

Both General Franks and the British Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon, in an earlier briefing in London, went to pains to point out that the barrage of missiles and bombs unleashed on Baghdad on Friday night was carefully targeted against strongholds of the regime. "As last night's dramatic television coverage showed, the lights stayed on in Baghdad, but the instruments of tyranny are collapsing," Mr Hoon said.

While acknowledging the resistance faced by US and British troops during the first 72 hours of the ground campaign, General Franks said 1,000 to 2,000 Iraqi troops had been taken prisoner after surrendering and added: "We have certain knowledge that thousands more have laid down their weapons and have gone home." One of General Franks's senior staff at the command centre in Qatar, Brigadier General Vince Brooks, said the leaders of "several divisions" had surrendered.

Earlier the British Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, said that the 51st Iraqi Infantry Division, one of those charged with defending Basra, had surrendered and "that we have many thousands of prisoners of war".

Several Iraqi regular divisions, ill-equipped and underfed, appear to have given up after brief resistance or no resistance at all. More than 1,500 troops have been taken prisoner but several thousand more have simply melted away into the desert, allied commanders said.

However, much stiffer resistance was being put up by small groups of snipers in civilian clothes and soldiers armed with rocket launchers in the outskirts of Basra itself.