An Iraqi military spokesman said Iraqi forces had fired five missiles at US troops on the edge of the city.

But US troops fighting to break President Saddam Hussein’s hold on power said they had cut most approaches to the sprawling capital of five million people, the biggest prize in the 18-day-old war.

“We’re just about there,” Col. Will Grimsley of the US 3rd Infantry Division said when asked if US forces controlled all access to the capital.

As if to emphasize the point, the first US military aircraft, a C-130, landed at Baghdad’s international airport about one hour after nightfall. US military maps showed only one main road, Highway 2, remained to be secured on the outskirts of the city. It leads north to Kirkuk.

“Look at it from this point of view — 1st Brigade holds the airport and the west of Baghdad, the 2nd Brigade is securing the south, the 3rd Brigade is holding the northwest and the Marines are in the northeast,” Grimsley said. The advance on the capital came as US/UK forces renewed their bombardment of the battered city.

The US Army’s Third Infantry Division fought its way to the Tigris River north of Baghdad, while US Marines continued their push toward the city from the east.

Maj. Ross Coffman, speaking at the division’s Tactical Command Post, said the infantry had completed the western portion of the planned encirclement of Baghdad and was waiting for the Marines to close the net from the east.

Marines Maj. Rod Legowski said US forces hoped to complete the ring of steel around the capital by the end of the day.

Coffman said an entire Iraqi tank battalion had been destroyed in the fighting, with hundreds of Iraqis killed or wounded and 25 tanks, 50 trucks and several armored personnel carriers destroyed.

Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged Iraq’s military leaders to give up or face certain defeat. “They can surrender and become part of the future free Iraq or they can fight and die,” Pace said.

The US military has begun flying Iraqi opposition fighters to join in the war, he added.

A heavy exchange of fire, including artillery, mortar, machine gun and rocket blasts, could be heard in the south of the city in the evening.

In the north, a US plane bombed a convoy of US special forces and Kurdish fighters, killing 18 Kurds and wounding over 45, including the brother of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.

Russia said a convoy carrying its ambassador and other Russian diplomats from Baghdad was attacked and four or five people were wounded. The US military said the area was under Iraqi control. There was no immediate comment from the Iraqis.

In the country’s south, British tanks rolled into the center of Iraq’s second city Basra, meeting only “patchy” resistance, after commanders decided the Iraqi forces were weakening under siege.

They thrust from the south to the edge of the old city after driving in from the west earlier in the day, a spokesman said.

“We opened a second access of attack this afternoon with a 3 Commando Brigade,” British spokesman Al Lockwood said. “We’re on the edge of Basra old city now. We’re in there with tanks, we’re staying and we’re not just going in and coming out again.”

In the north, Kurdish fighters said they had captured the town of Ain Sifni, northeast of Iraq’s third city Mosul.

Meanwhile, Kuwait has called for an extraordinary meeting today of GCC foreign ministers to discuss regional developments and concerns.