An eerie silence prevailed over the city, plunged into complete darkness by a power cut, with just sporadic explosions being heard from the southern rim of the capital.

There was no apparent activity at the Republican Palace, Saddam's main compound in Baghdad, after a long day of fighting in which US forces battled their way through the complex before posting two tanks on the main Al-Jumhuriya bridge across the Tigris river.

Access was blocked to the area beyond the presidential compound, stretching along the western Al-Karkh bank of the Tigris and comprising the ministries of information and foreign affairs as well as other state buildings.

A few cars sped along the deserted main arteries of the eastern Al-Rusafa bank, where traffic had been relatively better than the other embattled side of the river.

Iraqi fighters who had been heavily deployed across the city since the outbreak of the US-led assault on the country March 20, had all but dissappeared from Al-Rusafa.

Sandbagged positions on street corners, once providing shelter to militiamen armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and shoulder-held anti-tank rocket launchers, were empty.

No guards were standing in front of police stations and neighborhood headquarters of the ruling Baath party.

However, many pedestrians stood for more than an hour gazing upwards at a US fighter jet that flew over the capital at high altitude before diving low with a deafening scream.

"We do not know what is really happening. We just saw that the armed fighters disappeared from the streets. We are left in the dark," said one Iraqi.

SPACE.WIRE