Baghdad, Mar 22: Baghdad burned today after US and British forces rained bombs and missiles on the capital in the start of their campaign to "shock and awe" Saddam Hussein's regime into submission. The United States said an entire Iraqi regular army division had surrendered in southern Iraq but there was still widespread speculation over the fate of Saddam.
A Pentagon official said the 51st division troops, which would normally total between 8,000 and 10,000 -- gave up en masse in the biggest surrender since US and British forces crossed into Iraq on Thursday hours after the start of the war to bring down Saddam.
A US marine officer said around 600 other Iraqis have been taken prisoner by advancing ground forces in southern Iraq since Thursday night.
Eight hours after the massive air raid on Baghdad, giant plumes of smoke continued to spiral skyward as speculation ran rife in western circles on the fate of Saddam, whose Republican Palace, symbol of his iron grip on Iraq since 1979, lay in flaming ruins.
US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington the Iraqi President's regime was "starting to lose control of their country."


For nearly an hour, thunderous explosions rocked the ancient city of five million people, sending fireballs and thick smoke billowing skyward and triggering earth-shaking shock waves.
Iraqi information minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, quoted by the al-Jazeera Arab television channel, said a former royal residence turned museum, and a guest house, had also been destroyed.
There was no immediate word on casualties. But ambulances wailed through the streets even as the ordnance fell.
Two US marines were the first combat deaths among the invaders. But a US marine helicopter also crashed in Kuwait early yesterday, killing eight British royal marines and the American crew of four.
Rumsfeld's Iraqi counterpart, sultan Hashim Ahmed, defiantly told a Baghdad press conference amid the bombing that Iraq would prevail.
"No force in the world will conquer us because we are defending our country, our principles and our religion," Ahmed said, his voice sporadically drowned out by violent explosions.
Bureau Report