¡¡¡¡BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Eight huge explosions were heard in several parts of Baghdad early Thursday as the Iraqi capital came under a new round of airstrikes.

¡¡¡¡The eight explosions rocked the central and southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital amid loud roaring of warplanes flying over city. The capital, which has a population of 5 million, has been a prime target of daily US-British airstrikes since the US-led invasion began a week ago.

¡¡¡¡The Thursday raids followed a bloody attack early Wednesday, which killed 14 Iraqi civilians and wounded 30 others when cruise missiles struck a residential area. The Iraqi troops launched counterattacks against the US-British Coalition forces in central and south Iraq.

¡¡¡¡Despite the civilian casualties and the blinding sandstorm, the US-British planes continued the bombing campaign on Baghdad, and their ground troops are thrusting toward the war-torn city.

¡¡¡¡Early Wednesday, the Iraqi state television was temporarily knocked off the air after a missile hit the building. At about 10:30 p.m. (0730 GMT) Wednesday night, a dozen of huge explosions struck the southern outskirts of the city.

¡¡¡¡It is estimated that at least 30 civilians have been killed andover 400 others wounded in a week of relentless bombings in Baghdad.

¡¡¡¡On the seventh day of the war, Baghdad came under severe bombardment from the US-led coalition. A residential area in the north of the capital was bombarded by the coalition warplanes earlier Wednesday. Witnesses said that at least two missiles struck apartment blocks, several shops and apartment buildings were badly damaged. Several cars nearby were on fire or smolderingand about 14 civilians were killed and another 30 injured.

¡¡¡¡However, in Washington, the US military denied it targeted the residential area.

¡¡¡¡"Coalition forces did not target a marketplace nor were any bombs or missiles dropped or fired" in that district, Army Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations for the Joint Staff, told a Pentagon briefing.

¡¡¡¡A statement from the US Cental Command, however, acknowledged that it was possible civilians had been killed in the air strikes.

¡¡¡¡Meanwhile, the official Iraqi news agency reported that the US and British troops are rounding up civilians in southern Iraq and claimed they are prisoners of war (POWs). Iraqi officials accused the United States and Britain of violating Geneva Convention by taking civilian as POWs.

¡¡¡¡Earlier on Wednesday, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeedal-Sahaf told a press briefing that Umm Qasr, the country's sole deep-water port, had not fallen to British and US troops, saying that the coalition forces took control over only one wharf of the port.

¡¡¡¡The coalition forces, however, claimed that Umm Qasr had been under their full control.

¡¡¡¡Iraq also strongly accused the US-British coalition forces of using cluster bombs "in the crazy historical way," noting that 200homes were destroyed and 500 civilian killed in the southern city of Nasiriyah by cluster bombs.

¡¡¡¡The "villains" used cluster bombs against Iraqi villages, civilian residential areas and Baghdad, where the radio and TV stations were targeted, al-Sahaf said.

¡¡¡¡In Washington, the US military announced Thursday that the first batch of 12,000 troops of the US Army's 4th Infantry Division will fly for the Gulf from its headquarters in Fort Hood,Texas, to join the war on Iraq.

¡¡¡¡US ground forces in central Iraq, therefore, are gathering fresh combat power. Their tactics is to probe enemy defenses and allow time for the coalition airpower to weaken Iraq's Republican Guard around Baghdad before launching a multi-pronged attack on the capital.

¡¡¡¡A US military officer said that the speed of the initial US ground attack into Iraq from Kuwait last week led many to assume Baghdad would be assaulted soon, but now that appears to be many days away due to several factors. Severe sandstorms, for one thing, are affecting the timetable.

¡¡¡¡The United States also opened a northern front Wednesday by dropping 1,000 paratroopers of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade into an unspecified location in Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Iraq. Their tanks, other vehicles and supplies are being airlifted there.

¡¡¡¡Some reports from the battlefield Wednesday said a portion of the Al-Nida armored division of the Republican Guard drove south toward US forces, and hundreds of suspected paramilitary forces incivilian vehicles were on the move in roughly the same direction.

¡¡¡¡A column of about 1,000 armored vehicles of the Republican Guard moved out of Baghdad and headed toward the southern city of Najaf late Wednesday. About 70 to 120 Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers that had streamed south out of the southern Iraqi city of Basra Wednesday came under attack from the US-British coalition forces, according to the CNN.

¡¡¡¡In Baghdad, the Iraqi military confirmed the fighting Wednesday,saying that its Republican Guard forces had fought with the US-British troops for the first time since the war began last week and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy Wednesday in an attack on US and British troops in the mid-Euphrates region. It also said that a large number of coalition soldiers were killed and armored personnel carriers destroyed.

¡¡¡¡According to another report of Abu Dhabi TV, the Medina Division of Iraq's Republican Guard, launched counter-attacks on the US 3rd Infantry Division.

¡¡¡¡Al Jazeera TV reported later Wednesday, citing a US officer, that US troops had killed 1,000 Iraqis over the past 72 hours in the Najaf region in central Iraq. The US 3rd Infantry Division fought a fierce battle with Iraqi forces on Wednesday for the control of a bridge over the Euphrates river close to the city of Najaf.

¡¡¡¡In Riyadh, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisalsaid on Wednesday that his country had put forward ideas to end the ongoing Iraq war, backing away from an announcement of a formal initiative a day earlier. Saud told the press that "We havethoughts and ideas that will not come to fruition unless both (theUnited States and Iraq) agree in principle it is time to stop the fighting."

¡¡¡¡In New York, the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday started an urgent open session on the ongoing conflict in Iraq. "We not only mourn the dead, but also anguish for the living, especially for the children (in Iraq)," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in his speech to open the debate. Enditem