There was no word on Saddam's fate after the B-1 bomber strike Monday on a residential neighborhood of Bagdhad, part of a campaign of increasingly personal attacks targeting him, close aides and symbols of his 24-year rule.

The US television news channel MSNBC quoted US officials as saying they believed Saddam and his two sons may have been killed. But Pentagon officials would not confirm the report.

"We just don't know who might have been killed," one Washington official said after the assault with four 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bunker-busting bombs in Baghdad's al-Mansur section.

"Obviously we hope that some part of the leadership was taken out of action, but we don't know at this point who might have been there at the time the ordnance arrived," said the official, who asked not to be named.

Witnesses reported that at least 14 civilians were killed by a bomb Monday that destroyed four houses in al-Mansur and left a crater eight metersfeet) deep and 15 meters wide off a main commercial artery.

As US troops fanned out further across Baghdad on Tuesday, American warplanes kept up the attack on Saddam's Republican Palace while fierce fighting raged inside the vast complex.

The bombing Monday was the second attempt by US forces to kill Saddam with a single blow in the 19-day-old offensive aimed at toppling him and ridding the country of its suspected nuclear, chemical and biological arms.

The invasion kicked off March 20 with a surprise attack by US F-117 stealth fighters on a Baghdad compound where Saddam and his senior aides were believed to have gathered. The Iraqi leader survived the strike.

The latest assassination bid came three days after an air raid on the villa of Saddam's notorious aide known as "Chemical Ali" for having ordered a gas attack that killed some 5,000 Kurdish villagers in 1988.

Officials suggested Monday that Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin and long his right-hand man, had been killed in the attack in the southern port city of Basra. But they stopped short of outright confirmation.

Monday's early afternoon attack aimed at Saddam was carried out by a B-1B bomber using precision-guided weapons to strike what the US Central Command here called "a suspected meeting of senior regime leaders."

"There was some intelligence that came in this morning suggesting a number of Iraqi officials, intelligence officials and possibly Saddam and his two sons, were gathered at some building in Baghdad," an official said.

"Central Command had aircraft in the air who were given the coordinates, they dropped some ordnance on the building and destroyed it," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The daily USA Today said the target had been under surveillance for three days and the strike was ordered because of "reliable tips from three spies in Baghdad, as well as satellite intercepts of communications."

The Washington Times said the bombs hit a restaurant after sources reported Saddam and Baath Party leaders were meeting with some 30 intelligence officials. Other media described the target as a house.

Shattered glass and concrete covered the sidewalk after Monday's raid, notably in front of the al-Sa'ah restaurant where Saddam made a defiant public appearance Friday after US troops moved to take the main airport southwest of the capital.

As US troops sought to spread their control over the capital, thousands of armored vehicles and Humvees carrying US marines steamed toward Baghdad from the east, causing huge traffic jams in the outer suburbs and canals.

The Americans also threw new weapons into the fray.

Apache helicopters made their first appearance in the skies over Baghdad and an A10 Thunderbolt "tank killer" plane attacked the palace compound. An A10 also went down near the airport southwest of Baghdad but the pilot ejected safely.

The war continued to take a toll on journalists.

Five people, including a Spanish cameraman and three staff of the British news agency Reuters, were wounded when a Baghdad hotel was hit during fighting across the capital, AFP correspondents said.

Jose Couso, of Spanish private network Telecinco, was wounded in the leg and jaw in the firing that hit the Palestine Hotel, the television announced during a morning current affairs programme.

The Reuters injured included a journalist, a photographer and a cameraman. The identity of the fifth casualty was not immediately clear.

SPACE.WIRE