The attack was carried out in Fao which British forces say they secured

BAGHDAD, March 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - An Iraqi committed a suicide attack in the southern region of Fao overnight and destroyed a tank of the U.S.-British alliance, an Iraqi military spokesman said Tuesday, March 25.

"The first martyr operation (suicide attack) was carried out this night," Hazem al-Rawi told a press conference in Baghdad.

The attack was carried out in the Fao peninsula which British forces say they have secured.

An Iraqi civilian "penetrated behind enemy lines and destroyed a tank", the spokesman said, without giving details.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report.

Umm Qasr Under "Total Control": Invasion Forces

Meanwhile, Invasion troops Tuesday claimed a major breakthrough in the south of the country, with a British officer saying the Iraqi port town of Umm Qasr had been brought under "total control", reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Farther north, as U.S.-led ground forces rumbled across desert sands in convoys of armored vehicles to positions less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Baghdad, the city came under heavy attack from the air for the sixth consecutive night.

This time, however, raids struck suburbs south of the capital, targeting Republican Guard troops defending the city and signaling the battle was nearing a crucial phase.

Dark clouds of smoke from burning fuel trenches rose up on city outskirts in the early morning, an AFP correspondent said, and warplanes could be heard but not seen roaring at high altitude.

U.S. officials said about 30 to 40 Apache attack helicopters made initial runs against the Republican Guard as the prelude to what could be an epic tank battle.

In a multi-pronged offensive, the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division was less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, field reports said. The 101st Airborne Division was moving up from the southwest but was facing delays due to sandstorms.

However, the U.S.-led coalition continued to face resistance on multiple fronts.
There was heavy fighting through the night around the key southern city of Nasiriyah before a column of 4,000 U.S. Marines finally crossed through the Euphrates River location Tuesday.

An AFP correspondent reported more than 100 Iraqi bodies littering the road north of Nasiriyah.

And there was continued resistance around the oil terminal city of Basra, and a dense sandstorm in the southwest slowed the critical U.S. 101st Airborne helicopter advance on Baghdad.