Coalition warplanes dropped six precision-guided bombs o­n a building in Ramadi, about 100km from the capital city of Baghdad.

According to CNN, the target was presidential adviser Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, who was also Saddam Hussein's half-brother.

Central Command said the building was bombed in a "continuing effort to degrade the regime". Damage assessment is o­ngoing.

Suicide attack

Meanwhile, Pentagon said four US Marines were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated explosives near a checkpoint in the capital.

In Najaf, a furious crowd hacked two clerics to death in a mosque yesterday when a meeting meant to be a model of reconciliation in post-Saddam Iraq erupted into a melee between rivals.

One of the slain clerics, Haider al-Kadar, was a widely hated Saddam Hussein loyalist, part of the Iraqi leader's ministry of religion.

The other was Abdul Majid al-Khoei (photo), a high-ranking Shiite cleric and son of o­ne of the religion's most prominent ayatollahs, or spiritual leaders, who was persecuted by Saddam. Al-Khoei had urged cooperation with US troops.

He had returned April 3 from exile in London to help restore order after the city was taken by US forces.

His return was seen as a positive sign by exiled Iraqis that Washington would not rely entirely o­n local leaders to assume authority. He had accompanied al-Kadar to the meeting in a gesture of reconciliation.

Kirkuk seized

In another development, it was reported that Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, backed by US Special Forces, seized control of the critical oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk yesterday.

A Pentagon spokesperson said a battalion from the 173rd Airborne Brigade has reinforced US special forces and Kurdish forces in Kirkuk

"The situation (in Kirkuk) is fluid and has been all day," he said.

"Truckload after truckload" of Kurds flooded into the city after US-backed Peshmergas entered the city without so much as a shot fired by Iraqi defenders, who had apparently headed south toward the Baath party stronghold, Tikrit," the spokesperson added.

Kurds dominated the scene in Kirkuk's central square, where they jubilantly followed the footsteps of Iraqis from southern Iraq to Baghdad by toppling a statue of Saddam Hussein and dancing o­n its broken pieces.

Late yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Kurdish troops and US forces had entered the northern city of Mosul and were "being welcomed by the people."

Military sources told CNN that the commander of the Iraqi army's 5th Corps and the governor-general are expected to surrender to US special operations troops in the Mosul area.

US military officials said Tikrit remains a "stronghold" for fighters loyal to Saddam, US airstrikes in recent days have targetted sites around the city.

Ugly place

In Baghdad, chaos continued to reign with widespread lotting while coalition forces encountered 'pockets of resistance' throughout yesterday.

It was reported that military officials were concerned about suicide bomber tactics from Iraqi "irregular" fighters and people from other countries who may have responded to the call for a jihad.

"Baghdad is still an ugly place," said Major Gen. Victor Renuart, Central Command's director of operations, with many parts either still controlled by fighters loyal to Saddam Hussein or harboring such resistance.

However, he said the coalition controls all the bridges in and out of Baghdad, as well as five air bases in Iraq, he said.

In another development, CNN reported that residents of Amrah - a town southeast of the capital - led US troops to a soccer stadium where the regime had concealed an al-Samoud missile.

After coalition forces secure the nation's airwaves, President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair had their videotaped messages broadcasted while Pentagon said it hope to distribute a newspaper starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, chief United Nationas weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday his inspectors were ready to go back in to Iraq o­nce peace is re-established there.

Under existing UN resolutions, sanctions o­n Iraq cannot be lifted until the weapons inspection agency reports to the 15-member Security Council that there are no longer weapons of mass destruction in the country.