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Sons believed to have escaped Baghdad AMERICAN forces were last night hunting for Saddam Hussein inside Baghdad after US troops encircled the city and began sealing the exit routes. British and US intelligence sources believe that the Iraqi leader is still inside the capital, but that his two sons, Uday and Qusay, may already have slipped out. They are thought to be hiding somewhere between Baghdad and Tikrit, Saddam’s birthplace and stronghold, 100 miles north of the capital. As American forces moved almost at will around the edges of the city, there were signs of disruption to the regime’s control...

Baghdad Defenders Prepare for Last Stand By HAMZA HENDAWI .c The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Iraqi capital's defenders prepared to make their last stand on Friday - digging ditches and stocking up on ammunition, even as thousands of frightened residents fled in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The military's preparations could be seen on the last three miles of the road heading south of Baghdad, where thousands of army troops and militiamen dug more trenches and foxholes. Determined but not frantic, dozens relaxed in the shade against a wall or under a tree next to their weapons, taking shelter from...

Basra's last-stand militia using five-year-olds as human shields JEANETTE OLDHAM PRO-SADDAM Hussein militia in Basra are using children as young as five as human shields and threatening men with death if they do not fight for them, British troops revealed yesterday. Sergeant David Baird, a tank commander, told Martin Bentham, a journalist with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, that he had seen at least four or five children, aged between five and eight, being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and held by Iraqi fighters as they crossed a road in front of his tank. He said he was "sickened"...

KUWAIT CITY, April 1 (UPI) -- The war entered its decisive phase Tuesday as midday temperatures in central Iraq soared toward 100 degrees and U.S. forces advanced into Iraq's so-called Red Zone around Baghdad, where local commanders may have authority to use chemical weapons, coalition leaders say.The best of Iraq's conventional forces, five Republican Guard divisions, have now been identified gathering south of Baghdad for what looks to be the decisive battle of the war. Coalition military intelligence sources add that a sixth RG Division, the al-Adnan, is also reported moving south from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit to join...

CIVILIANS fleeing Iraq's main southern city of Basra have said increasingly desperate Iraqi fighters are preparing for a last stand against a growing force of British troops and tanks. Many of the hundreds streaming out of the city over a bridge leading south confirmed the Iraqi soldiers, paramilitaries and Baath party members loyal to President Saddam Hussein were trying to stop the exodus. "They believe that if Basra empties of civilians it will be easy for the foreign troops to take the city," one man said. Residents headed out in cars, on bicycles or on foot, forming an almost constant...

The Pentagon (CNSNews.com) - As U.S. and British forces consolidate their positions around Baghdad, military leaders in the south are working effectively against paramilitaries on a local level with members of the Iraqi resistance, a U.S. war commander said Monday. Around Basra, where some communities still are "under the boot of the regime," coalition forces are "receiving assistance and information from people in Basra and it localizes our attacks very effectively," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters at a briefing in Qatar. As the Fedayeen Saddam continue to use civilians in attacks, and amid reports that more suicide bombings are...

Iraqi Fighters Prepare for Last Stand in Basra, AFP Reports Basra, Iraq, March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Civilians fleeing the southern Iraq city of Basra say Iraqi fighters remaining behind are preparing for a last stand, Agence France-Presse reported. Hundreds of residents are streaming out of the city over a bridge leading south. They told AFP that Iraqi soldiers, paramilitaries and Baath party members loyal to President Saddam Hussein were trying to stop the exodus. Iraqi mortar positions and snipers had fired on the fleeing civilians in the last few days to stem the flow, AFP cited unidentified British soldiers as...