Armour-plated wake-up call

Thirty minutes before dawn, the US Marine Corps 1st Division's Howitzer guns fired off a ferocious barrage on military targets in Baghdad about 15 kilometres away.

In the city's south, at least 65 tanks and 45 Bradley fighting vehicles from the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division roared towards the centre of Baghdad, meeting scant early resistance.

By 8.30am American officers claimed that they had surrounded the main presidential compound, the Al-Rasheed Hotel and the Information Ministry near the Tigris River.

Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis said Republican Guard units, each carrying six rocket-propelled grenades, were spread over the area taking fighting positions.

"There is a no-man's land between the Iraqi troops and American troops on the street in front of the ministry," he said.