"This morning, members of the First Marine Expeditionary Force were involved in a fierce firefight in the north-central area of Baghdad near the Iman palace," said Captain Frank Thorp, adding that several of the soldiers were wounded.

The firefight came as "an Iraqi leadership group was trying to get together for a meeting," he told journalists at the US Central Command (Centcom) base.

"It's a very large mosque with a large wall around the mosque," he said, adding that there was a palace and the house of a Baath leader in the immediate area.

Asked about reports Saddam Hussein may have been at the compound, he said: "There is no reason to speculate."

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, said "the mosque was used as a fighting post."

Another spokesman, Major General Victor Renuart, said the firefight lasted several hours and that enemy forces clad in the distinctive black garb of paramilitary forces were killed or captured.

Military officials said the mosque had been secured.

"There were intelligence reports the mosque was a Saddam stronghold,"

Major Pete Farnum said in Baghdad.

An AFP correspondent with the marines said the troops came under fire from fighters hiding in civilian areas, in buildings, cars, behind lines of laundry on rooftops and beneath bridges.

"There were at least 13 casualties and one soldier killed in action," said First Sergeant Jeff Treiber.

The 1st Marine Division, 5th Regiment captured one of Saddam's main palace complexes on the northern side of the Tigris, Treiber said.

A total of 22 prisoners were taken from the mosque to the palace, according to Private Matthew Sienkiewicz, who was among those who captured them. He said some were Egyptians.

When the Marines arrived at the mosque, where they waited for an hour before moving in, they came under heavy fire with at least one assault vehicle being hit three times by rocket-propelled grenades while two others fell short of the vehicle, the AFP correspondent said.

Corporal Luke Mondoux said the inside of the mosque compound "looked like a military barracks, there were lockers and mattresses."

Thorp said there was also fighting in other parts of the Iraqi capital.

"In Baghdad we found enemy forces, confronted them and defeated them," he said.

"We're continuing to see fierce, brief firefights," he said, adding, however, that "there continues be no organized resistance."

SPACE.WIRE