By Reuters, 4/6/03

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BAGHDAD AIRPORT, Iraq -- A U.S. C-130 military transporter touched down at Baghdad airport on Sunday, the first plane to land since U.S. forces seized the facility early on Friday, a U.S. military source told Reuters.

"At least one aircraft has landed at the airport," said the senior source in the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division's aviation brigade, who was at the airport.

He said the C-130 Hercules transporter landed at around 8 p.m. local time (1600 GMT), about an hour after dark, on the western, military side of the international airport.

It was not immediately clear whether the plane was carrying a load or was testing the landing strip which had been slightly damaged by U.S. bombing during Friday's assault on what was formerly known as Saddam International Airport.

U.S. forces seized the airport, some 20 km (12 miles) southwest of the city centre, on Friday. They then said they had renamed it Baghdad International Airport.

On Sunday, U.S. forces said they controlled practically all road access to the capital, too.

The source said earlier the U.S. could land up to three aircraft at the airport after dark on Sunday. A Reuters correspondent at the airport said he heard anti-aircraft and artillery fire from western districts of Baghdad a while after the plane landed, but this appeared random rather than aimed specifically at the airport.

He said there was heavy responding U.S. artillery fire.

The military side of the airport sustained some damage during Friday's capture, but the U.S. military source said the Hercules had landed safely on the apron of the runway.

A team of U.S. military engineers had already begun work to repair three small bomb craters on the runway.

The eastern, civilian, side of the airport is more exposed to potential incoming Iraqi fire from the direction of Baghdad.

Colonel John Peabody, commander of the Engineer Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, said earlier that the U.S. had positioned 7,000 troops at the airport and was moving quickly to establish a small military village there.

Analysts have said the airport is a key strategic catch for U.S.-led forces in their 18-day-old campaign to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Once cleared and fully secured, the airport is likely to be used to bring in troops, equipment and supplies, easing pressure on a long and vulnerable supply chain that stretches to Kuwait in the south.