US forces battled fighters still loyal to Saddam Hussein in Baghdad today as rampant looting persisted in the capital.
One US Marine was killed and three were seriously injured this evening when a suicide bomber walked up to a Baghdad checkpoint and detonated explosives that were strapped to his chest. The attack took place near the Palestine Hotel, where most foreign journalists are staying. It also is near Fardos Square, where a large statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was pulled down a day earlier.
A day after declaring that Saddam Hussein's regime no longer controlled Baghdad, the US Central Command said American marines engaged in "intense fighting" with pro-Saddam forces at the Imam Mosque, the al-Azimyah Palace and the house of a leader of the Baath party. One US Marine was killed and up to 20 were wounded.
Captain Frank Thorp, a spokesman at Central Command in Qatar, said troops acted on information that regime leaders were trying to organise a meeting in the area. During the operations, he said, Marines were fired on from the mosque compound. He said he didn't know whether Saddam was among those trying to organise the meeting or whether any regime leaders were captured or killed.
The volatile security situation in much of the country - with the regime's control gone but coalition authority not yet established - was apparent from the killings of two Shi'ite Muslim clerics at the holiest site for the Shi'ites, the Ali Mosque in the central Iraqi city of Najaf.
In Baghdad, two large explosions were heard tonight, and it appeared remnants of Saddam's army were firing artillery at the old presidential palace on the Tigris River that is now held by US troops.
Despite the nagging Iraqi resistance, US commanders were focusing on plans to oust pro-Saddam forces from remaining strongholds - including Saddam's heavily defended hometown of Tikrit and the northern city of Mosul. Saddam's precise fate remains unknown.
US military officials said in Qatar that navy bombers and special forces teams were targeting Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, to ensure it does not become a new command centre for the regime as Iraqi soldiers are pushed into the area both from the capital and the north.
President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to calm fears by Iraqis and other Arabs that the coalition troops would become an occupying force. "We will help you build a peaceful and representative government that protects the rights of all citizens. And then our military forces will leave," Bush said in a video message that was broadcast to Iraqi TV sets from a specially adapted Hercules transport plane. Mr Blair said: "Our forces are friends and liberators of the Iraqi people, not your conquerors."
In Baghdad, thousands of people from poor outlying districts surged into the city centre with wheelbarrows and pushcarts for a second day of looting, setting fires to some Interior Ministry buildings and making off with anything they could carry. Looted buildings included the homes of Saddam's son Odai, deputy premier Tariq Aziz, German Embassy and the French Cultural Centre.
"There's civilian looting like crazy, all over the place," said Lance Corporal Darren Pickard, adding there weren't enough American soldiers to carry out orders to stop the vandalism.
In many parts of the country, civilians struggled with serious shortages of food, medicine and clean water. Several major international aid groups are demanding swift access to Iraqi civilians without interference from coalition troops.
Humanitarian assistance is expected to be high on the agenda of the U.S.-led interim administration expected to begin operating in Baghdad within the next week or two. Headed by retired US General Jay Garner, the team also is expected to rebuild shattered infrastructure and start setting up a democratic government.