The attacks occurred at 9.30am (0630 BST) and caught motorists by surprise as they ventured out during a lull in the bombing. At least five cars were crushed and their drivers burned to death inside, Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul said.

Patients and at least three doctors and nurses working at the hospital were among those wounded.

The missiles obliterated wings of Baghdad's trade fair building, which lies next to a government security office that was apparently missed in the bombings.

Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, told a news conference that overnight bombings by US-led forces killed 24 civilians and injured 186 across the country. In Baghdad, he said, 10 civilians had been killed and 90 wounded.

"No matter how many Iraqi civilians they kill, this will make us even stronger and even more determined to repel the invasion and to defeat them," Mr Sahaf said.

An assault in the early hours had previously targeted a presidential compound on the banks of the Tigris where Saddam Hussein's son Qusay has his headquarters, and sustained explosions pounded Republican Guard positions on the southern edge of the city.

Kerbala secured

Earlier US forces today secured the central Iraqi city of Kerbala and a strategically important Tigris river crossing in their push to Baghdad.

Commanders of the US 3rd Infantry Division had expected a day-long battle to seize the perimeter of the city, which is 70 miles south of Baghdad, but the operation lasted three hours.

Rather than tackling Iraqi soldiers inside, the US soldiers secured all major exit routes and continued the drive north.

"We've secured the positions we wanted to around Kerbala," said Colonel John Peabody, commander of an engineer brigade.

Up to 15,000 US troops have massed around Kerbala waiting to pour across the Euphrates - the last major natural obstacle standing between them and Baghdad on the south-western approach to the capital.

US marines later took control of the main Highway 6 from Kut to Baghdad- the eastern flank of the advance - and seized a Tigris river crossing described by one senior officer as the "last big bridge" needed for an advance on the Iraqi capital.

He said the Baghdad Division of Iraq's Republican Guard, based at Kut, was now "irrelevant". General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the Medina Division suffered a similar assault.

Elements of two of Iraq's northernmost Republican Guard divisions - the Adnan and Nebuchadnezzar - are moving south towards Baghdad, apparently to reinforce units under attack.

A Reuters correspondent travelling with advancing troops has reported that a vanguard of US troops is now 19 miles from the centre of the capital.

Najaf

Fighting has meanwhile continued in the holy city of Najaf, 30 miles to the south of Kerbala, where US troops backed by helicopters, A-10 Warthog warplanes and RAF Tornados attacked Fedayeen militia fighters.

US central command in Qatar said Iraqis fired from inside the Ali mosque in the city, an important Shia Muslim shrine where Mohammed's son-in-law, Ali, is commemorated, but its troops did not return fire. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

"The Iraqi regime's use of the Ali mosque for military purposes is just the latest example of the regime's continued strategy of placing sacred sites in Iraq in jeopardy," a US official said.

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Holden of 101st Airborne said the city was a centre of the irregulars' unexpected resistance.

"The target is to destroy Fedayeen units and anyone else trying to disrupt our lines of communication," he said. "We are going to destroy them."



In pictures: Iraq's cultural heritage

Baghdad: troops still strong

A new statement from Saddam Hussein broadcast today by Iraqi satellite television said the Iraqi armed forces had not used their full capabilities in the war.

"Fight them. Victory is at hand, God willing, although we have only utilised a third or less of our army while the criminals have used everything they brought in."

Iraq's defence minister, Sultan Hashem Ahmed, claimed aerial bombardment of Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad had caused minimal damage, because of "good fortifications".

Full story: Saddam urges Iraqis to fight

Blair: Iraq should be run by Iraqis

Iraq should be run by the Iraqi people as soon as possible after the war ends, the prime minister, Tony Blair, insisted today.

Mr Blair told MPs he favoured a "broadly representative" Iraqi government that protected human rights - rather than the country being run by the UN or the coalition.

The prime minister also claimed that it was "increasingly probable" that a bomb which killed about 14 civilians in a Baghdad market last week was not a coalition weapon.

Straw: we will not attack Iran or Syria

Britain would have "nothing whatever" to do with military action against Syria or Iran, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, signalled today.

Mr Straw's comments will be seen as an attempt to ensure that speculation about an Anglo-American attack on the two countries is quashed ahead of his meeting with EU foreign ministers tomorrow.

The US president, George Bush, has previously identified Iran as part of the so-called "axis of evil", while America's defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, this week accused Syria of supplying military equipment to Iraq and threatened to hold it to account for its actions.

Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Iran is an emerging democracy and there would be no case whatsoever for taking any kind of action."

Regarding Syria, Mr Straw said "we have worked hard to try to improve relations".

Full story: UK will not attack Syria or Iran, says Straw

Basra

Away from the main thrust of the assault, British forces today reported a quiet night in southern Iraq.

But a lull in fighting was broken when British tanks fired on a building on the city's edge where soldiers believed to be Iraqi paramilitary fighters launched a mortar attack against a military checkpoint.

"The Challenger tanks are pressing forward to try to find out where the mortars are coming from," said Sergeant Pete Clifford, a tank commander.

British forces have besieged Basra since reaching its outskirts at the start of the 14-day-old war.

Some Iraqi soldiers have escaped and surrendered to the British troops.

The northern front

US B-52 warplanes have also bombed the northern Iraqi front line between the town of Dohuk and the city of Mosul, Reuters reported.

Elsewhere in the north, British troops staged an "extraction mission" after al-Jazeera showed pictures of what it said was a special forces Land Rover captured near Mosul.

The Qatar-based channel said the Iraqis had killed 10 British troops and showed footage of local tribesmen driving the vehicle.

"There was some UK forces equipment lost in Iraq, because obviously this equipment was shown on al-Jazeera television, and an extraction operation was mounted," a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said.

Powell in Turkey

The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said today he had discussed with Turkey the possibility of moving supplies for US forces in northern Iraq through the country.

Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said there was no need for a new parliamentary resolution to support the measures discussed with Mr Powell.

Mr Powell was visiting Turkey, a Nato ally, to repair damage to relations following Ankara's refusal to allow US troops to attack Iraq through Turkey. The secretary of state said US troops airlifted into Kurdish northern Iraq had stabilised the situation there and there was no cause for Turkey to send its troops into the region.

Mr Powell said he discussed with Mr Gul, "other needs we have now to sustain the coalition forces that we have operating in northern Iraq to keep the situation stable".

Prisoner rescue

US marines staged a decoy attack on targets in Nassiriya to allow special forces to rescue a soldier, Private Jessica Lynch, 19, held prisoner by Iraqi troops, it was announced today.

Full story: Troops free soldier seized in ambush