BAGHDAD - US-British bombing of Baghdad Thursday killed 27 civilians and wounded 193, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf said.
Sahhaf was addressing a daily press conference as reporters said US-led bombing raids around the outskirts of Baghdad appeared to be intensifying as US troops said they were just 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city centre.
US-led bombing raids around the outskirts of Baghdad appeared to have been intensively stepped up on Thursday afternoon, a reporter in the Iraqi capital said.
Repeated air strikes pounded the southern edges of the city, whose approaches US commanders say their troops are controlling and are 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the centre of Saddam Hussein's capital.
The massive, booming explosions could be heard from the centre of Baghdad.
Saddam's elite Republican Guard troops defending the capital have come under intense and regular bombardment, but it seemed to have been strongly stepped up after midday (0900 GMT) on Thursday.
Sahhaf read a message on state television said to be from Saddam, which hailed the "courageous" resistance of Iraqi forces against coalition troops.
"Your noble struggle and your resistance have soothed our hearts," said the message.
Baghdad has dismissed US suggestions that Saddam is no longer in effective control of the country he has ruled since 1979, or that he may have been killed in the thousands of coalition air strikes since the war began on March 20.
Meanwhile, US forces advanced Thursday to within 15 kilometers (nine miles) of downtown Baghdad and controlled the southern approaches to the capital, a senior commander said.
Major General Buford Blount, commander of the 20,000-strong Third Infantry Division, said troops of his second brigade controlled a key intersection south of Baghdad.
He said they were 15 kilometers from the city center and "they have the southern access to Baghdad blocked," he said.
Sahhaf denied that US forces were pushing towards Iraqi capital, saying they were "not even 100 miles" from Baghdad.
Another officer with the same division said lead elements were also in the "neighbourhood" of the capital's main airport, which is some 20 kilometres to the west of the city centre.
"We are in the neighbourhood but we ... have not yet achieved that objective," the officer said.
"I really do not think it's going to be too long."
Captain Frank Thorp, a spokesman for the US Central Command in Qatar, said US troops were in the "vicinity" of Baghdad but he refused to be more specific to protect operational security.
Special forces commandos had also "moved closer" to the capital during the night, he said.
"Overnight we have been able to prevent the destruction of several significant infrastructure facilities such as bridges and a dam," Thorp said, without providing details.
"What we have seen is the ability to move through from our positions of a couple of days ago, with minor damage on our part, and we are now in the vicinity of Baghdad."
Thorp said two Republican Guard divisions, the Baghdad and Medina, were "no longer credible fighting forces" but he admitted the Iraqi troops may have simply fled to fight another day.
"It's a combination of capitulation, being destroyed or hiding, as well as running for the hills or perhaps taking cover for another fight," he said when asked to explain the condition of the Iraqi forces.
"Some of them may have moved into Baghdad as they retreated from the Republican Guard locations but I do not have any reports of great movements into the city."
He said the First Marine Expeditionary Force had entered Al-Kut, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the Iraqi capital.
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