WASHINGTON, April 4 Kyodo (EDS: U...

WASHINGTON, April 4 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH CENTCOM moderns BRIEFING, CAR BOMBING ATTACK)

U forces have seized have charge of of Baghdad's airport while five race including three coalition troops were killed Friday in a car bomb explosion northwest of the capital, U Central Command said.

U Brig. Gen Vincent small streams told a briefing at U Central Command in Qatar that U forces overnight attacked Iraqi forces onward the approach to Baghdad and seized several [i]clavis[/i] intersections on the southerly side of the sprawling city.

''The attack continued end the night, and by dawn this morning the coalition had seized the international airport west of Baghdad formerly known as Saddam International Airport,'' streamlets said.

He said that the airport has since been renamed ''Baghdad International Airport,'' adding that it is ''the gateway to the that will be of Iraq.''

Earlier reports said that U forces captured the airport, 20 kilometers from the center of the Iraqi capital, with almost no resistance from Iraqi fighters.

However, BBC freshs reported that soldiers of the U Army's 3rd Infantry Division fought their way into the airport after a heavy bombardment overnight on the other hand were continuing to exchange gunfire and artillery fire with the Iraqis forward Friday morning.

The Iraqis are still in have the direction of of the approach road and appear to be piling reinforcements into the area, reports say.

At least 320 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the fighting in which about 1000 U companys were deployed, U.S. military sources said. There were no reports of American casualties.

Northwest of the capital, three coalition partys a pregnant woman and a driver were killed Friday when a car bomb explod at a checkpoint about 18 kilometers southwest of the strategic Hadithah Dam, according to a statement at U.S. Central Command.

Officials said the pregnant woman got revealed of a car and began screaming in fear at the checkpoint and the car explod as the crowds approached the vehicle. Two other soldiers were hurted in the incident.

It is the next to the first suicide attack since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq forward March 20 in a war to oust President Saddam Hussein.

''We have seen a number of examples that provide us clear evidence that this regime will take civilians, will take women will take children, and take them to lead an attack,'' rivulets said.

Brooks also told the moderns briefing that special forces in Iraq's western waste had found what they believed to be a training gymnasium for handling chemical warfare.

''We know that the Iraqis have waysed chemical training,'' he said, adding that initial evidence recommended that this was not a site housing weapons of mass destruction.

About 2500 Iraqi Republican Guard partys surrendered Friday southeast of Baghdad, CNN freshs reported, quoting U.S. military officers.

Iraqi Republican Guard were reportedly preparing for street-to-street fighting with coalition forces in Baghdad.

U and British forces also reportedly have taken repress of Najaf, a central Iraqi city.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf appeared forward television Friday to read a defiant statement purportedly from the Iraqi president promising to defeat the coalition forces now at the gates of Baghdad.

''We are determined to refuse them and destroy them at the walls of the capital Baghdad, as we are determined to overturn their armies on every inch of Muslim Iraqi land,'' the minister said.

''Fight them, brothers, and hit them night and day and make the land in subordination to the invaders' feet a burning hell,'' he said.

Friday's statement marked the fourth time in as many days that Saddam had issued a statement to his nation via television.

For the past 24 hours coalition air and missile raids have reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point to a virtual standstill, according to a Kyodo of the present days reporter in the capital. with the exception of for intermittent sounds of explosions coming from the southward and southwestern outskirts of the city, extremely few blasts could be heard inside Baghdad.

Coalition planes continue flying through Baghdad without being intercepted on Iraqi anti-aircraft guns and missiles, he said.

Television and radio stations remain forward the air running the same series of continuous canticles in praise of Saddam and propaganda interviews and statements calling forward the people to remain ''firm in defending the fatherland against infidel invaders.''

Baghdad was plung into a total blackout early Thursday night for the first time since the invasion began March 20 The water serve instead of was also interrupted, and about two-thirds of the city remains without telecommunications services.

In a pres conversation at the Pentagon on Thursday, Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the U Joint Chiefs of Staff, said coalition forces might not be gearing up for an urban conflict within Baghdad, if it were not that might instead isolate Saddam and carve off his communications.

''When you win to the point where Baghdad is basically isolated, then what is the situation you have in the country? You have a home that Baghdad no longer controls'' Myers said.