But in a major blow to the coalition's global public relations battle, at least 30 people were killed and 47 wounded in an air raid on the capital Friday in the fiercest day of strikes since the war began on March 20.

As the US ground offensive hit a lull for regrouping and resupply on its 10th day, the "Screaming Eagles" of the 101st Airborne struck late Friday at Iraqi positions near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala, officers said Saturday.

Colonel Greg Gass, the 101st's Aviation Brigade commander, said the tank-busting Apaches joined with warplanes in the assault near the city about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad.

The armored Medina Division of Iraq's elite Republican Guard was reported lying in wait around Karbala, guarding the western approaches to Baghdad with an arsenal said to include more than 200 Russian T-72 tanks.

Officials have said US forces are intent on softening up the Republican Guard ahead of an expected push by the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which is just south of Karbala.

British Royal Air Force pilots said that laser-guided bombs and Maverick missiles took out some of the Medina Divisions's biggest guns.

Flight Lieutenant Scott Morley, a Harrier pilot, said he joined a queue of coalition planes including A10 tankbusters and American F16 and F18s to take his turn to bomb the division.

"There was fantastic visibility and I could even see the camels on the ground as well as a number of bomb craters around the encampment," he said.

"It is not carpet-bombing, it is still precision stuff. I got two good hits on Medina Division artillery pieces."

US warplanes pressed their attacks on the capital, which came under heavy bombing early Saturday, with at least one missile crashing into the information ministry.

But stiff Iraqi resistance in the south, bad weather and long, vulnerable supply lines have prompted US ground commanders to put the brakes on while they make plans to send in another 120,000 troops on top of the current 90,000.

The US-led forces continued to have problems on the ground in their campaign to unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

US officials said four marines went missing during a "combat operation" in Nasiriyah in the south. A US soldier was killed and five others injured in central Iraq Saturday when their Bradley fighting vehicle rolled over.

A British soldier was missing and presumed dead and four others were injured in an apparent friendly fire incident in Iraq, the fifth such death since the war began, the British defense ministry said Saturday.

Britain's Press Association (PA), quoting a senior defense official, reported earlier that a soldier was killed after an American A10 tankbuster plane targeted two armored vehicles near the southern port city of Basra.

A total of 23 British soldiers have died in the conflict so far, including 14 as a result of helicopter accidents and four killed in action. That toll already exceeds that of the 1991 Gulf war by five.

The Pentagon said that 28 US military personnel had died in the war, including 20 killed in action. Another 104 were wounded in action, 16 were missing and seven were prisoners of war, it said.

The Iraqis also left a calling card for US ally Kuwait, hitting Kuwait City for the first time Saturday.

Two people were injured slightly by the missile, which landed off the coast but caused substantial damage to one of the emirate's largest and most popular shopping malls -- Souk Sharq.

The British continued their siege of Basra, where Iraqi militia were holding out. A group of wounded civilians were evacuated by British military ambulance after being hit by Iraqi mortar fire as they left the city, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

US F/A-18 fighter jets also targeted three Al Samoud missile launchers in an air strike near Basra Friday, the US military said.

WAR.WIRE