US forces penetrate Saddam's capital in lethal show of force

US forces began what Allied commanders hope is the final and decisive phase of the campaign to oust Saddam Hussein's regime by penetrating urban Baghdad yesterday, in the first military incursion into the city by an invading force since 1941.

In a public demonstration that the Iraqi regime was no longer in full control of its capital, a column of tanks and armoured vehicles of the 3rd Infantry Division made a 25-mile journey through the city in broad daylight. They passed within two miles of the Iraqi dictator's official residence and four miles from the city centre.

The incursion was a remarkable climax to an unprecedentedly rapid 350-mile advance from the Kuwait border which began only 17 days ago and comes a week after Allied forces appeared to have been stalled by bad weather and harassment by irregular forces, triggering criticism that the war plan had seriously overstretched US forces.

Despite fierce, though sporadic, fighting, the column completed a three-hour sortie which took it from the south to within half a mile of the Tigris river before heading west to the newly seized and renamed Baghdad International Airport. Last night, however, US Central Command admitted they had not yet fully secured the airport. "It is an ongoing operation, and we are in the process of securing it," a spokesman said. He refused to confirm reports of US casualties in fighting at the airport. Earlier the Iraqi regime had claimed that the airport had been retaken by Republican Guard forces.

At US Central Command, General Victor Renuart, director of operations, said that "the message" of the raid had been to "put an exclamation point on the fact that coalition troops have the ability to come into the city at places of their choosing. It demonstrated to the regime that they do not have control."

He said that confirmed casualty figures were not yet available, adding: "The adrenaline was flowing and the battle was raging." Gen Renuart said the purpose had been to "show the Iraqi leadership that they do not have the control they speak about on their television".

The government in Baghdad had denied the US forces were anywhere near the capital. "This showed them it's not true. We're here," said Major General Buford Blount, commanding the 3rd Division. The appearance of US troops in metropolitan Baghdad had psychological and political, as well as military, value.

US military sources here were careful not to claim that the incursion meant that they now controlled the south-western sector of the city through which they passed yesterday. But Colonel David Perkins, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the US 3rd Infantry, said: "Now we basically own the main road going into Baghdad, so we've cut Baghdad in half, so to speak."

He said: "There was some very intense fighting, with just about every kind of weapons system you can imagine.

"It was a non-stop gauntlet of both heavy systems as well as light infantry on roofs, shooting down on top of tanks with RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] and machine guns. It was a full spectrum of very close urban combat."

The incursion came after thousands of US troops had gathered on Baghdad's outskirts – the 3rd Infantry Division arriving from the south-west and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force from the south-east. Meanwhile, the 101st Airborne took up positions to the north as checkpoints operated on the road from the capital to Tikrit, Saddam's home base, and reportedly the site of alternative command and control facilities.

The Iraqi military, in a statement read on satellite television, claimed US forces were repulsed when they tried to advance on Baghdad from the south: "We were able to chop off their rotten heads."

On the southern outskirts, Marines engaged in close-quarters fighting with pro-Saddam volunteers from Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and elsewhere, according to Lt Col BP McCoy of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines.

"It's like a jihad. They were given a rifle and told to become a martyr," said Lt Col McCoy, whose troops used bayonets while battling in the reeds of a marsh.

At Baghdad's airport, US troops used explosives to clear abandoned buildings and examined an underground complex.

Lt Col Lee Fetterman, a battalion commander with the 101st Airborne Division, said several hundred Iraqis were killed at the airport, some with bombs strapped to them who apparently intended to try suicide attacks. Gen Renuart said the Americans' hold on the airport was firm, despite Iraqi counter-attacks on Saturday, and indicated one runway could soon be usable.