By Reuters, 03/24/03

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NEAR NASSIRIYA, Iraq, March 24 (Reuters) -- US Marines pounded Nassiriya with heavy artillery fire on Monday, and moved a light armoured battalion through the southern Iraqi city, opening a second route north to Baghdad.

After suffering significant casualties there in two days of fierce fighting, U.S. forces blasted rounds of 155mm artillery, sending clouds of smoke pluming above the city, which straddles the Euphrates river.

Reuters Correspondent Sean Maguire said U.S. troops he was with had been due to secure two bridges over the Euphrates about 375 km (225 miles) southeast of the capital, but had been held up by stiff Iraqi resistance late on Sunday and again on Monday.

He said U.S. planes roared over Nassiriya though it was not clear if these were on bombing runs.

On Monday evening, he said a battalion had pushed through the city, coming under small arms fire. South of the Euphrates, U.S. Marines were dug in with large columns of heavy armour.

"We can see impact flashes in the city," Maguire said from a position around five km (three miles) south of Nassiriya, adding he could see thick black smoke billowing from what looked like an oil storage depot on fire.

U.S. Army General Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S.-led invasion, told a Monday briefing his forces had entered Nassiriya. "We're in there now, and we're going to stay there."

U.S. Marine Captain James Ryans said four of his men were injured by a single mortar fired from north of the river.

BYPASSING NASSIRIYA

Reuters correspondent Matthew Green, with the Marines, said a convoy of U.S. military supply vehicles stretched for miles along the highway closer to Bahgdad, bypassing Nassiriya, and heading up the south and west bank of the river.

CNN television cited U.S. commanders saying the American death toll since Sunday had risen to 10 and could rise further. The number of wounded stood at 12, with another 16 missing.

U.S. troops captured the northern ends of the two bridges in the east of Nassiriya early on Sunday, opening the way for forces to head north toward the Tigris river and Baghdad.

But units of the Fedayeen, an irregular militia force of loyalists to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, counterattacked. U.S. officers suggested late on Sunday that the bridgeheads were now secure but the area in between was not.

Iraqi Information Minister Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said on Sunday that foreign invaders headed to Nassiriya had been "taught a lesson they will never forget."