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With U.S. forces in central Baghdad and coalition confidence growing, President Bush said Tuesday it was possible that bunker-busting bombs aimed at Saddam Hussein and his two sons could have killed the Iraqi president. Marines moved into a key military airfield in the capital city's southeast corner.

Bush, at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said "I don't know" whether Saddam survived an attack on a building in Baghdad. "The only thing I know," Bush continued, "is that he's losing power."

Iraqi forces staged a counterattack in the capital shortly after dawn Tuesday, sending buses and trucks filled with fighters across the Tigris River to take on U.S. troops guarding a key intersection. U.S. troops strafed the Iraqis from planes overhead and with mortar and artillery fire. At least 50 Iraqi fighters were killed and two U.S. soldiers were wounded, one seriously, by rooftop snipers.

In a potentially significant loss for the Iraqis, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved to capture Rasheed Airport in the southeast corner of Baghdad, said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks of U.S. Central Command. On the way, the Marines fought and defeated heavily armed Iraqi forces in tanks and armored personnel carriers, before moving on to the military airfield.

Taking the airport would help secure the Iraqi capital, and prevent the escape of high-ranking Iraqi officials, Brooks said.

In the midst of Monday's assault on Baghdad, a lone B-1B bomber carried out a massive strike on what the coalition described as a "leadership target" in the upscale al-Mansour neighborhood where senior Iraqi officials, possibly including Saddam and his two sons, were believed to be meeting. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American intelligence learned of the high-level meeting Monday morning.

It was not clear who was killed; the strike left a smoking crater of dirt and concrete 60 feet deep and destroyed three nearby houses. Iraqi rescue workers pulled three bodies from the rubble an elderly man, a young woman and a little boy but said the toll could be as high as 14. There were no unusual security measures; a reporter was able to examine the site, talk with neighbors and watch the search without interference.

Mohammed Al-Douri, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday the Iraqi government was still in control of the country. He also said that he believes Saddam Hussein was alive although he acknowledged having no first-hand information from Baghdad.

Brooks said that although the site is still in Iraqi hands, coalition forces would likely visit it soon. He added that it would take some time and perhaps detailed forensic work to establish who was killed.

U.S. troops in Baghdad have no plans to pull back, Army Col. David Perkins said Tuesday. They now control most of the west bank of the Tigris, which divides the city, and they plan to join up with U.S. forces at the international airport, farther west. The Marines are advancing from the east.

"We survived the first night, and that's usually the most difficult one," said Perkins, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade.

The soldiers hunkered down in the sprawling, blue-and-gold-domed New Presidential Palace, where Saddam once slept, and patrolled neighborhoods in the city's center. At least a dozen Iraqis were held in a hastily erected holding pen on the grounds.

As American and British forces advanced, their political leaders met in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was the third summit for Bush and Blair in three weeks.

"This work, when the war is finished, will not be easy, but we're going to see it through. A free Iraq will be ruled by laws, not by a dictator," Bush said. "A free Iraq will be peaceful ... A free Iraq will set itself on the path to democracy."

A key component of the talks was U.N. resolutions that would define what role the international body would play in reconstruction and governing postwar Iraq. Both leaders sought to rebuff comments that U.S.-led forces were planning to occupy Iraq.

"This was indeed a war of liberation and not conquest," Blair said. "Our enemy in this conflict has always been Saddam and his regime, not the Iraqi people."

As airstrikes continued Tuesday, Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera reported its office was bombed, killing one staffer. While the network's cameras rolled, a second bomb fell in the same neighborhood on the Tigris, where a number of TV channels have offices. Abu Dhabi TV said its office had also been hit.

Later, the Palestine Hotel, home base for many journalists, was struck by U.S. tank fire. Two television cameraman for Reuters news agency and Spanish network Telecinco were killed, and at least three other journalists were injured.

Perkins said the military regrets what happened but blames the regime for militarizing civilian areas.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf was speaking to reporters outside the hotel when it was hit. He dismissed a question on whether Iraq would surrender.

"The capital, especially the commandos, are getting ready to wipe them out," he said. "All is under control."

Marines working to secure the southeastern part of the city came under sporadic fire. The 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines seized a prison overnight where they found U.S. army uniforms and chemical weapons suits, possibly from captured U.S. soldiers. Other Marines were sent to guard a power plant Tuesday.

On the west side of the city, soldiers with the Army's 101st Airborne Division cleared a badly damaged Republican Guard headquarters north of the international airport, where they had been taking sniper fire in recent days. At least two Iraqis were killed. There are also plans to explore an extensive network of tunnels under the airport, said 1st Brigade Col. Will Grimsley. The army suspects tunnels from nearby palaces may lead to the city.

"This will go on for weeks," Grimsley said.

Defense officials said samples of a suspicious material found in Iraq are being tested for the presence of chemical weapons. Soldiers with the Army's 101st Airborne Division found the substance in metal drums in a compound near the city of Hindiyah, about 85 miles south of Baghdad. It was possible the substance was a pesticide, since it was found at an agricultural site, a local commander said.

If the discovery is confirmed, it would be the first chemical weapons find of the war. Finding and eliminating Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons was stated as a goal of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and finding such weapons of mass destruction could mute international criticism of the war.

At the United Nations, a group of 22 Arab countries decided late Monday to push for a General Assembly resolution calling for a cease-fire in Iraq. They are certain to face U.S. opposition.

Meanwhile, a new cassette tape purported to be from Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to rise up against Arab governments that support the attack on Iraq, and urged suicide attacks. The tape was obtained by The Associated Press in Pakistan from an Algerian national, who said he had slipped across the border from Afghanistan, where the tape was recorded.

There was no way to independently confirm that the voice on the tape was that of bin Laden, and no clear indication of when the recording was made.

photo credit and caption:

U.S. Army Spc. Marcus Coe with the A Company 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry Regiment drops the arm of a statue of Saddam Hussein outside the Iraqi Republican Guard Medina Division headquarters south of Baghdad Saturday, April 5, 2003. Two tank companies and an infantry company of the 3rd Infantry Division rolled through the headquarters unopposed and quickly took over the entire base. It appeared that the Republican Guard defenses had completely collapsed. (AP Photo/John Moore)

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