Heavy bombing boomed out from the city's southern rim and the ack-ack of anti-aircraft batteries could be heard sporadically on the 13th day of the war.

Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf said that 18 more people had been killed and more than 100 wounded in strikes on Baghdad since Monday evening.

Five of them died and 25 were wounded in Tuesday morning's raids.

He added that more than 30 other Iraqis were killed and more than 130 others wounded in various other parts of Iraq, including the provinces of Qadissiyah, Babylon and Salahaddin.

An AFP reporter saw a missile or smart bomb explode in the heart of the Republican Palace complex around 09:00 (0600 GMT) after a dozen missiles crashed into the Iraqi capital overnight.

A huge plume of smoke rose into the air over the sprawling palace grounds, a potent symbol of Saddam's grip on power which has been a frequent target of the bombardments.

At US Central Command in Qatar, a military spokesman admitted that US troops, fearful of a fresh suicide attack, opened fire on a civilian vehicle killing seven women and children.

The shooting occurred at a checkpoint manned by soldiers from the US Army's Third Infantry Division at Najaf, 150 kilometres (95 miles) south of Baghdad, on Monday afternoon, Navy Lieutenant Commander Charles Owens said.

The admission came after villagers on the edge of the capital reported 20 more civilians dead, 11 of them children, from the blitz.

Sahhaf also said several people were wounded when a US warplane attacked two Iraqi buses carrying international volunteers, some of them American, who were operating as "human shields".

He said the attack took place Monday in the western town of Rutba on the road from Baghdad to Jordan.

Intense bombardments also resumed Tuesday after a night of relative calm on the outskirts of the city, where four divisions of Saddam's elite Republican Guard were dug in to defend the capital from any ground attack.

AFP reporters said the raids were getting worse after Monday saw the heaviest bombardment since the war began on March 20.

Overnight, the ominous whistle of the missiles was heard in the sky before a series of explosions shook the city, appearing to knock out electricity in entire neighbourhoods.

Balls of smoke slowly merged into a single cloud overhead.

Official sites of the regime were targeted. Two missiles were seen smashing into the Republican Palace compound along the banks of the Tigris River, which had already been pounded earlier in the day.

The eerie silence in the aftermath of the raid was broken only by the wail of ambulance sirens, their flashing red lights criss-crossing the main avenue along the river.

US Central Command said coalition forces had targeted Monday night an office complex serving regime leaders and housing Iraq's National Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Youth.

"The strike was executed to erode the command and control capabilities of regime leaders," it said, adding that battle assessment was ongoing.

Coalition forces say thousands of attack sorties have been carried out since the war began with 1,000 on Sunday alone. The information ministry was hit earlier Monday, and domestic television was knocked out for several hours.

Meanwhile, an AFP journalist was accompanied to Janabiyah village on the southeastern edge of Baghdad, where residents said 11 children were among 20 people killed when missiles hit five sleeping families on a farm Saturday night.

The victims had already been buried according to Muslim tradition but the stench of death still hung over the farm. One building had been flattened, and the carcasses of dead animals were black with swarms of flies.

Schoolbooks soaked in blood testified to the carnage.

The United States and Britain say the war will not be finished until Saddam's 24-year grip on power is ended.

However state television underscored Saddam was still in control of the country.

It showed him chairing a meeting of top aides including Uday, his elder son, who was being shown on television for the first time since the war began. It said the footage had been recorded Monday.

Uday heads the Saddam's Fedayeen militia, intensely loyal fighters who have joined regular Iraqi forces in mounting fierce resistance to US and British ground troops in the south aiming to push their way to Baghdad.

An Iraqi military spokesman said Monday at least 54 US and British soldiers had been killed in the previous 24 hours, most in the south of the country.

SPACE.WIRE