Twice on Tuesday strong explosions were heard in the area south of Baghdad, where fire and smoke could be seen, according to an AFP correspondent. No information was immediately available on the targets hit.

A US military spokesman said Wednesday that American forces were attacking four elite Republican Guard divisions around Baghdad, in what one officer called the "last push" toward the Iraqi capital.

Sahhaf also said that 14 people had been killed in US-British coalition attacks elsewhere in Iraq, including the provinces of Niniveh in the north, Babylon south of Baghdad and Muthana in the south, and nearly 100 wounded, 58 of them in Babylon.

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