US invasion forces are less than 50 kms from Baghdad after a "dramtic" surge towards the Iraqi capital, a Sky News reporter with the troops said on Wednesday. This report came after US officials described a battle with the elite Republican Guard in Karbala as "the biggest fight of the war". In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein has chaired a meeting with his senior officials, Iraqi TV said.

Meanwhile, 11 bodies - at least some of them believed to be Americans - were found with prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said that during the rescue operation, 11 bodies were recovered in and around the hospital. "We have reason to believe some of them were Americans," Thorp said.

He said the military has not confirmed whether they were members of Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company. "We don't yet know the identity of those people," Thorp said. "And forensics will determine that."

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US invasion forces are less than 50 kms from Baghdad after a "dramtic" surge towards the Iraqi capital, a Sky News reporter with the troops said on Wednesday