The networks, including Fox News, Sky News, CNN and BBC World showed pictures taken mostly by their own cameramen embedded with armoured US forces, or by cameramen working for other networks.

In some of the most impressive footage, Fox TV and Sky News viewers were able to acompany a tank column advancing on an Iraqi highway and actually watch as what seemed to be a speeding Iraqi military truck was stopped by machine gun fire from a tank turret.

In two similar separate incidents, civilian vehicles with apparent hostile intent, a white pick-up truck and a white sedan, were also gunned to a halt. The sedan, which was approaching the column from the side crashed onto the highway's central barrier missing two tanks in its path.

US and British military have been wary of suicide attacks on their forces. According to the correspondents, every effort is made to turn civilian vehicles away from the advancing US forces.

A US tank hit by enemy fire was also shown as soldiers jumped out and accompanying tanks closed in to protect the damaged vehicle from further attack.

Later on, a man in green uniform holding up his hands and then lying on the pavement to signal surrender could be seen on the side of the road as the tank column passed by.

A second man suddenly emerged from behind nearby trees prompting someone, apparently the television network's correspondent himself, to holler: "Watch out, there's another guy. Don't shoot him."

The footage also showed narrow side streets in what US military spokesmen said was a district in southern Baghdad. Some Iraqis could be seen waving at US forces.

The networks also showed viewers many minutes of what was described as an ongoing attack on an Republican Guard barracks in Baghdad.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahaf claimed in an interview with the Al Jazeera network that the footage being shown by the Arabic and Western media was not shot on the outskirts of Baghdad, but near a town further south. He also said the international airport was still in Iraqi hands.

sayc/ben

SPACE.WIRE