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BAGHDAD, Thursday (AFP,Reuters) - US-led forces closed in on Baghdad on Thursday, with a new front opened in the north and reinforcements sent to the south as the war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein entered its second week.

But US troops suffered a setback when dozens of US marines were wounded in friendly fire during an Iraqi attack near the southern town of Nasiriyah, US officers at the scene said.

Units of the Marines' First Division pushed north toward Baghdad on a major road near the city of Diwaniya, some 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital, after two days of heavy fighting with Iraqi fighters.

Another marine unit from the east broke free of Iraqi resistance between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and moved to within 230 kilometers of the capital.

The progress toward Baghdad of US-led forces, who launched an offensive last week to disarm Iraq and topple Saddam's government, became easier as blinding sandstorms that had slowed their movements for two days cleared up.

The 101st Airborne Division's fleet of 270 attack helicopters prepared to take part in combat missions after being grounded by the swirling dust, officers said, with clear skies forecast for the next two days.

The coalition opened a new front in northern Iraq when up to 1,000 elite troops from the US Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade parachuted into the Kurdish-held zone late Wednesday, circumventing Turkey's refusal to allow US troops to cross its soil.

"It's the first sizeable force in northern Iraq," a US defense official said.

Early Thursday, US transport planes landed in the eastern part of the Kurdish region, witnesses said, with US troops seen being deployed near frontlines with the Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk.

Some 12,000 troops from the US Army's 4th Infantry Division, initially due to enter Iraq through Turkey, left their Texas base Thursday for the Gulf, where ships carrying their tanks and armored vehicles were diverted last week.

The fresh arrivals will back up the offensive, which has put the 3rd Infantry Division on Baghdad's doorstep but exposed its supply lines to guerrilla attacks.

As the drive to Baghdad continued, US forces suffered a disappointing blow when dozens of marines were wounded in a friendly fire incident during a nighttime Iraqi attack near Nasiriyah, a key crossing point over the Euphrates River.

Shell and mortar fire apparently hit the marine command post headquarters near Nasiriyah, leaving 37 wounded, with three in critical condition, officers told an AFP correspondent travelling with the troops.

UK military takes over Basra radio and TV - Sky

British troops battling to take Basra, Iraq's second city, have taken over the local radio and television stations, Sky television news said on Thursday.

The station gave no further details.

U.S. and UK troops have been battling Iraqi troops on the outskirts of Basra, a city of more than one million people, for several days.

Iraqi troops quit front guarding Kirkuk

Iraqi troops on Thursday abandoned a key frontline position guarding access to the northern oil capital of Kirkuk, allowing Kurdish militia to take it over, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

The pershmerga fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) advanced through an exposed no-mans land after spotting what appeared to be Iraqi troops pulling back from a ridge -- situated 40 kilometers due east of Kirkuk -- they had been occupying.

The ridge overlooking PUK-held Chamchamal is dotted with a string of Iraqi army bunkers, which have been twice targetted by limited US-British airstrikes.

Several peshmergas were seen moving along the ridge checking for any remaining Iraqi troops. They took over the first main Iraqi checkpost position on the road to Kirkuk passing over the ridge.

Sporadic gunfire could be heard shortly after the PUK militia moved forward, but a local commander said the Iraqi army appeared to have abandoned their positions earlier in the day.

"There are no Iraqi troops on the hill. They pulled back in the afternoon. We are checking the area in case they are planning an ambush, so we are not moving any further forward for now," Rostam Hamid Rahim, a top PUK commander, told AFP.

U.S. accuses Iraq of dragging children into battle

Meanwhile,A U.S. general accused Iraq on Thursday of pressing children to fight invasion forces on pain of death to their families and said the United States was winning local support among Iraqis.

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, the Central Command's deputy operations director for command information, said the alleged dragooning of children near Najaf in south-central Iraq was a sign of growing desperation among the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"The repressive acts against Iraqi citizens showing any signs of tolerance with the coalition are growing harsher. And their disregard for the Geneva Convention is becoming more and more pronounced," Brooks told a briefing at the command's forward headquarters in Qatar.

In Najaf, he said, "Iraqi regime forces are seizing children from their homes, telling their families that the males must fight for the regime or they will all face execution".

Saddam chairs command meeting: TV

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Thursday chaired a meeting of top military aides and government ministers, state television reported.

The meeting was attended by Saddam's son Qussay, who heads the elite Republican Guards, as well as Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, it said. 

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