America has said it will adapt to cope with the threat of suicide bomb attacks on Coalition troops in Iraq after at least four US soldiers were blown up near Najaf yesterday.
Earlier an Iraqi military spokesman was quoted as saying thousands of Arabs had come to Baghdad for "martyrdom".
Iraq's Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said overnight: "The whole Iraqi people, including its women, will transform themselves into fedayeen (martyrdom fighters)."
"This is only a beginning and you will hear good news in the coming days. We will use any means to stop the enemy and kill the enemy."
The four died when an Iraqi soldier posing as a taxi driver blew up his car as soldiers from the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division were searching it.
Iraq claims 11 US soldiers died in the attack.
US Captain Andrew Valles said the man drove up to the checkpoint and waved his hand "indicating he needed some help." Five soldiers moved toward the car. Two trained their rifles on the rear of the vehicle, two on the front and the fifth approached the driver's side.
"As they aproached the car ... he set off the bomb," said Captain Valles, of the division's First Brigade. Iraqi state television said the bomber was an Iraqi army officer seeking to teach American troops a "lesson."
The new tactic will be further complication in the Coalition push towards Baghdad but US General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, said his forces could "adjust our tactics and techniques and the procedures we use to overcome that threat."
Myers, in an interview on BBC television, added: "We're familiar with that."
Meanwhile, another wave of explosions was heard around the outskirts of Baghdad this afternoon, as warplanes flew over the city and anti-aircraft batteries opened fire.
There was sustained bombardment of Baghdad overnight in one of the heaviest nights of Coalition bombing so far in the 11-day-old US-led war against Saddam Hussein.
The periodic crash of incoming missiles and bombs shook the city during the night and again after day broke following another day of intense coalition strikes against Republican Guard and government buildings.
Columns of black smoke rose above Baghdad this morning after coalition warplanes pounded the Iraqi capital anew, live pictures broadcast by the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera showed.
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said US-led forces had bombed the headquarters of Iraq's South Oil Co (SOC) in the oil-rich region of Basra.
"In Basra, the American and British bombed the South Oil Co," Mr Sahaf told a news conference. He did not say when the raid took place. US sources have denied involvement in the attack.
Baghdad in December claimed four people were killed after Western warplanes bombed the oil company offices, located on the outskirts of Basra.
Airstrikes on Basra yesterday claimed the lives of 22 people and injured 68, Al-Jazeera said citing local officials.
The channel showed images of destroyed buildings and the injured in a local hospital with one gruesome image of a little girl with an amputated right leg.
The US army said that it destroyed a building in Basra where about 200 members of Iraq's Ba'ath party were meeting late on Friday, killing them all.
Iraq's main northern city Mosul also came in for a new pounding last night from coalition planes, Al-Jazeera reported.
Mosul, 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of Baghdad, has been the target of airstrikes every day since March 21st by coalition forces in an effort to open a northern front against Iraqi forces.
Agencies