Battles in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. tanks and armored vehicles launched operations Saturday against targets in Baghdad after making their presence felt in the heart of the city in a brief daylight raid

Soldiers with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division fought Iraqi troops at a Republican Guard barracks in southwest Baghdad, according to a photographer who was with the troops and shot video of the action.

Video from the scene showed U.S. tanks shooting into the barracks. Iraqi tanks appeared to be on fire, and smoke billowed throughout the site.

As part of the assault on the Iraqi capital, coalition planes will fly over the city at all times to provide protection for ground troops, said Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, in charge of the coalition's Air Force in Iraq.

Earlier, two U.S. Army task forces conducted an operation from south of the Iraqi capital north to the Tigris River and then west toward Baghdad's airport, which is under coalition control, Air Force Maj. Gen. Vincent Renuart told a briefing at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

The U.S. tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles encountered "pockets of very intense fighting," with Iraqis firing rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft artillery, Renuart said.

"It was, I think, a clear statement of the ability of the coalition forces to move into Baghdad at the time and place of their choosing," Renuart said.

Coalition commanders believe they have "the Iraqis rocking backwards on their heels," but they would not put a timetable on the end of the Iraqi regime, CNN's Walt Rodgers reported Saturday.

The area around Baghdad remained "a harsh environment" for U.S. forces, reported Rodgers, accompanying the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry of the 3rd Infantry Division.

Troops with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved toward the city from the east and southeast and engaged in what Renuart described as dismounted, hand-to-hand infantry combat over the last 36 hours.

CNN's Martin Savidge, with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, said the unit encountered sporadic resistance as it moved into the outskirts of Baghdad. The Marines used artillery to soften up pockets of Iraqi forces before sending in the infantry, Savidge reported.

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