"Pretty much everything is wrapped up in the eastern zone," Lieutenant Colonel Jim Parrington told an AFP correspondent on the ground.

"We're still seeing some snipers around a lot. They are well hidden, well-armed and very good marksmen," said Parrington, of Regimental Combat Team 1 with the First Marine Expeditionary Force.

"There's going to be a lot of that going on even if this thing wraps up in the short term."

Coalition forces were pushing into central Baghdad from all directions Wednesday and witness reports as well as AFP correspondents in the Iraqi capital indicated there was little resistance from forces loyal to Saddam Hussein.

Parrington said that Saddam City -- which saw scenes of looting Wednesday morning -- had been cordoned off and that there were no plans to send forces in to the area for the time being.

Regimental Combat Team 1 had encountered much heavier fighting Tuesday, Parrington said, but "there was now much less resistance. Today we've consolidated."

Six US marines were wounded, one of them gravely, in a firefight with Iraqi forces east of the Baghdad district of Saddam City, Lieutenant Colonel Pete Owen said earlier.

Reinforcements had been sent overnight to the front line, where a marine battalion was taking on Iraqi fighters using rifles, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, Owen said.

Three marines had already been wounded Tuesday evening in a battle that erupted after US troops swarmed into Baghdad across the Diyala river.

Military sources later said that the marines were continuing to encounter stiff resistance.

"We are worried about collateral damage with regard to civilians," one officer told AFP.

"The Iraqis have managed to slow us down but they have not stopped us in our tracks. We are approaching this in the same manner we have approached every other battle since the war started."

Commander Ken Kelly, from a Shock Trauma Platoon, said most of the six injured marines had been hit by shrapnel while the more seriously wounded were shot by rifle fire.

"Much of the shrapnel was to the arms and it is becoming evident that flak jackets and helmets are reducing the number of deaths and serious casualties," he said.

He added that the fighting had occurred in a sector of Baghdad allocated to the marines' First Regimental Combat Team and warned that further combat was expected.

"There is a need to secure the area and to work towards that key objective.

"Then the next phase of the war can begin and that will involve improving relations with the Iraqi people and carrying out more humanitarian work."

SPACE.WIRE