Reuters: 6 miles from Baghdad, Preparing to Seize Airport

Reuters -- U.S. armored units advanced on Thursday to just six miles from the edge of Baghdad and were preparing to seize the city's airport, the U.S. military said.

Reuters correspondents with U.S. troops in the field near Baghdad quoted military sources as saying forward units of the 3rd Infantry Division were 6 miles from the Iraqi capital's southern outskirts.

Baghdad's Saddam International Airport is about 12 miles southwest of the center of the sprawling capital.

In central Baghdad, Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul said she heard an intense and sustained anti-aircraft barrage coming from the southern outskirts where U.S.-led forces have been bombarding the city's defenders.