US pushes toward Baghdad

U.S.-led troops fought pitched battles with Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard within 50 miles of the capital Monday as coalition warplanes pounded the city and dozens of other Iraqi positions in advance of the battle for Baghdad.\nTwo U.S. soldiers were killed in fierce fighting for control of the south-central city of Najaf.\nU.S. troops with the 3rd Infantry Division pushed into the Euphrates River town of Hindiyah on Monday. Iraqi soldiers fired from behind brick walls and hedges with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and U.S. troops returned fire with 25mm cannon and machine guns.\nAt least 35 Iraqis were killed and U.S. forces captured several dozen others who identified themselves as members of the Republican Guard. Their uniforms carried the elite unit's triangular insignia and they said they were with the Nebuchadnezzar Brigade, based in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.\nIraq remained defiant Monday; in Baghdad, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri questioned the legitimacy of the strikes and called on coalition soldiers to surrender.\n"America and Britain have no choice but to surrender and withdraw," Sabri said. "They will not leave our land safe and sound if they continue to be stubborn in their aggression. We will confront them with all we have ... No one will be safe."\n"We will turn our deserts into a big graveyard for the Americans and British," he said.\nCoalition attacks on leadership and command and control centers in Baghdad were carried out simultaneously by multiple B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers, according to U.S. Central Command. A 2 a.m. missile strike on the Information Ministry touched off a fire at the nearby 28 April Shopping Center, named for Saddam's birthday. A telephone office was struck later in the day, Iraqis said.\nIraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said state media operations were "as good as before," after he and colleagues put out the flames and technicians repaired the transmitters.\nWith constant aerial bombardments on the capital and ground forces advancing from the south, west and north, U.S. leaders defended the pace of the war effort Sunday, answering criticism that they had underestimated the vigor of Iraqi resistance.