Loud blasts were heard shortly before midday on the positions abandoned last week by troops loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein near Khazer, 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of the main northern oil city of Mosul.

After more than 24 hours of intense fighting and bombing, the peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) managed on Friday to take over villages in the Khazer area, which were accessed by the bridge.

But in a counter-attack the Iraqis were able to regain at least three of these villages forcing the Kurds to retreat.

By late Saturday Iraqi troops appeared to have recaptured the villages near Khazer, but it was impossible to tell who was in control of the bridge on Sunday morning. Journalists were not allowed access to the Kurdish front line.

According to Suleiman Khazer, a peshmerga commander, "nobody holds the bridge, both Iraqi and Kurdish forces are still fighting for it".

However, fighters returning from the front said the bridge and at least one village were in the hands of Saddam's forces.

Khazer and its bridge are strategic points in the advance on Mosul, a majority-Arab city of 1.5 million in a mostly Kurdish area some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, a correspondent for the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera said US warplanes bombed Mosul around 9.30 am (0530 GMT) Sunday, triggering a chain of loud explosions. The air raid followed several overnight aerial attacks on the city.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Nicole Kratzer, a spokeswoman on board the USS Kitty Hawk in the Gulf, said aircraft had bombed Iraqi artillery and military vehicles Saturday on the "northern front".

She did not give any details but said "that's the first time we've gone north of Baghdad".

SPACE.WIRE