Loud explosions occasionally shook areas nearer the centre of the city overflown by US-British warplanes.

Despite the intensity of the bombing and the breakdown of water and electricity supplies, Baghdadis were out and about and cars and buses were on the roads.

Just after 8:30 am (0430 GMT) the shockwaves of the blasts shook high-rise buildings in the heart of Baghdad.

The booms and ack-ack of anti-aircraft fire resounded virtually all night, but reporters could not immediately specify what targets were hit nor the scale of the damage.

A relative calm settled on the smoke-filled city around 7:00 ambut it was not long before the bombardment resumed.

Earlier, fireballs could be seen from Baghdad's southwestern outskirts, site of the airport US forces said they have captured, as warplanes roared overhead.

Bombs or missiles could be heard pounding Baghdad's outskirts relentlessly.

Coalition forces seemed also to have targeted a particular site in the capital's southeastern suburbs, from where a massive plume of smoke shot up into the sky. It was not clear what was hit.

On Friday night, a missile crashed into central Baghdad and a plane overflew the capital and drew heavy anti-aircraft fire.

The missile struck the heart of Baghdad minutes after the southeastern suburbs came under intensive bombing, sending red streaks into the night sky.

President Saddam Hussein called on Baghdad residents in a televised address to resist US forces closing in on the city, after the US military said it had seized Baghdad's international airport.

Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf issued an ominous warning that Iraq would carry out a "not conventional" attack later against US troops he said were "isolated" at the airport.

SPACE.WIRE