Iraqi people looting a reported government building in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, April 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – With Arab and foreign TV channels showing footage of reported looting of government buildings and U.N. office in Baghdad, Britain said Wednesday, April 9, that Iraq's command and control structure appears to have broken down but admitted resistance to advancing U.S. troops were still quite fierce.

"Clearly this is a very fast moving situation and therefore inevitably anything we say has the risk of being overtaken by events," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

"But I think the most compelling evidence of the fast-moving situation is the view that command and control in Baghdad appears to have disintegrated."

"We need to be careful and cautious about getting ahead of ourselves because there is localized paramilitary resistance and because command and control has broken down," he warned. "It could be stubborn and fierce."

"But the (television) pictures tell their own story. And the story they tell is not just progress militarily -- which is very welcome and we pay tribute to the troops -- but also the very real welcome local people are giving that progress," the spokesman claimed.

There was no immediate Iraqi official comment on the reported looting, the security situation inside the capital or the status of the regime.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) said young Iraqis attempted to hotwire the abandoned white Mercedes of the irrigation minister amid widespread looting in the Iraqi capital.

A group of about 15 to 20 men were working to start the engine under the lifted hood of the luxury car while another sat ready in the driver's seat, said an AFP correspondent.

The minister, Rassul Abd al-Hussein Sawadi, was nowhere in sight.

Earlier in the day, citizens rampaged through both the irrigation and interior ministries in the north of the capital, taking anything they could carry, said the correspondent.

People also broke into shops and homes in Saddam City, a Shiite Muslim bastion in the northeast of the capital, stealing furniture, food, electrical equipment and carpets, he added.

U.S. forces had pushed through broad swathes of Baghdad earlier on Wednesday with Iraqi gunmen reportedly offering sporadic resistance.

American troops, backed by military vehicles were seen at Saddam City, in the northeast of the capital.

Iraqi Fighters Stand Grounds

Groups of fighters loyal to Saddam Hussein made a last stand Wednesday morning on a key bridge in Baghdad.

Dozens of Iraqi and Arab fighters in civilian clothing took up position behind buildings or sandbagged positions with the aim of stopping American tanks crossing Al-Jumhurya bridge to the eastern bank of the city.

The slight rise in the center of the bridge prevented them from seeing the western bank clearly.

"Baghdad has not fallen and will never fall," said Mohammed al-Dahruj, a 24-year-old Syrian who volunteered to fight U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

"We fight to defend our homeland and will stand firm whatever the price because we are ready to sacrifice our lives for Iraq," said one Iraqi fighter

Armed like his brothers-in-arms with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and hand-held rocket launchers, he stressed that U.S. forces were "encircled and their supplies cut off."

"The enemy cannot budge. We feel stronger than the Americans despite their military superiority because, contrary to them, we defend a cause."

Khalid, a member of Saddam Fedayeen, was equally as defiant. "We love death as they (the Americans) love life," he said.

"We fight to defend our homeland and will stand firm whatever the price because we are ready to sacrifice our lives for Iraq."

According to Khalid, "no tank has crossed from the other bank and, thanks to God, they will never cross."

On the other side of the Tigris, one American tank deployed not far from Saddam's main Republican Palace advanced without problem and fired its cannon at a blockhouse Saddam had built in the area as a symbolic gesture of his power.

One retired soldier told AFP: "We can resist. We're not hungry because the trade ministry gave us six months of food rations."

Further north, three Iraqi tanks and troop transporters were deployed in Aden square, a seemingly derisory force in light of the invading coalition's massive military might.

Fighting had flared up on Wednesday morning around the presidential palace where two U.S. tanks still held a key bridge over the Tigris river.

The Abrams tanks opened fire, artillery pounded out and automatic weapons crackled as U.S. forces moved to counter resistance from an Iraqi position blocking the eastern exit of the Al-Jumhuriya bridge.

Smoke billowed across the area overflown intermittently by coalition warplanes in support of ground forces.

Iraqi anti-aircraft fire has been seldom heard in recent days as U.S. forces have blasted their way to President Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace.

The cracks and booms of battle began around 07:00 (0300 GMT) after a relatively quiet night and continued sporadically for more than two hours.

Intense shooting was also heard from the south of the capital as U.S. troops sought to tighten their grip on Iraq.

The BBC's Andrew Gilligan in Baghdad says American troops were encountering little Iraqi resistance.

According to the BBC News Online, thousands of Marines early on Wednesday moved block by block through Saddam City, an urban sprawl in northeast Baghdad.

A U.S. spokesman said a whole armored brigade was now in Baghdad, adding they intend to stay there.