Four loud blasts were felt around near the city centre around 2.00 amGMT Saturday) while others were heard in the northern outskirts of Baghdad, he said.

Dozens of explosions were heard southwest of the city two hours later, added the correspondent, who was not able to identify the targets of the fresh raids by coalition warplanes.

He said telephone lines were down in large areas of Baghdad and added anti-air batteries did not go into action following the fresh spate of air raids.

Baghdad and its surroundings were repeatedly hit by allied bombardment Saturday, for the tenth successive day since the US-British war against Iraq started on March 20.

WAR.WIRE