Baghdad is ours, say US troops

US forces launched a new assault on Baghdad seizing key buildings, including one of Saddam Hussein's lavish presidential palaces on the Tigris River.

Troops on the ground claimed the city was now theirs for the taking, but Pentagon officials warned against assuming that a full scale battle for Baghdad was under way.

The operation in the capital, the second incursion by US forces into the heart of the city in three days, came as British troops in the south sought to build on their lightning seizure of Basra yesterday.

In Baghdad, US troops appeared jubilant at their progress with reports that a US flag was taken into the presidential palace.

One officer with the US Third Infantry Division told Fox News in a live broadcast: "Saddam Hussein says he owns Baghdad. We own Baghdad."

He said he was planning to "turn on one of the golden faucets in Saddam Hussein's bathroom" and take his first shower in a month.

Another officer, Captain Chris Carter told the Associated Press: "I do believe this city is freakin' ours."

But with gun fire clearly audible in the background, Information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf held an impromptu open air press conference to again deny that US forces were in the city.

He claimed the US forces were "slaughtered" and said: "There is no presence of the American columns in Baghdad at all."

But Group Captain Al Lockwood, the UK military spokesman at Central Command in Qatar, said: "They are in Baghdad and they probably mean to stay this time."

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