250 Iraqis are captured

As many as 250 Iraqi soldiers today surrendered to British and American troops as allied forces pushed deep into enemy territory.

Iraqi troops marched with their hands on their heads or waved white flags to give themselves up.

Dozens of Iraqi soldiers were reported killed as Royal Marines secured the peninsula of Al Faw but met fierce resistance during heavy fighting for the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

US marines seized a section of the main Kuwait to Basra road after overcoming Iraqi mortar and small arms fire.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said this morning: "Our forces are in fact already facing some stern resistance at Umm Qasr as I speak.

"The Iraqis are not simply giving up in the way that some commentators have suggested that they would. And our forces are fighting."

In other locations in southern Iraq, British troops were moving towards oil well heads that were torched by retreating forces.