US: Up to 12 soldiers missing

On Sunday, American forces continued their rapid push to the Iraqi capital Baghdad as the costs of the war - human and financial - came into sharper view.

On the battlefield, the race to Baghdad continued with one unit, the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade covering 230 miles in 40 hours to take positions about 100 miles from Baghdad. That puts them less than a day's travel in the 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles the unit employs to cross the dessert.

The battalion moved forward and captured ground near the city of Najaf with little resistance early Sunday. Najaf is on the western bank of the Euphrates River, along one of the main highways leading to Baghdad.

"We're on course and we're making good progress ... this is just the beginning of a tough fight," President Bush told reporters on the White House South Lawn Sunday afternoon after returning from Camp David. The president said that "Saddam Hussein is losing control of his country."

The war's human cost was shown in various ways. A US Patriot missile shot down a Royal Air Force plane, killing the two fliers on board. It was the third aerial accident involving British personnel since the war began.

Iraqi officials claimed to have shot down five allied planes, four in Baghdad and one in Basra since the war started. Scores of security officers in Baghdad were seen searching the banks of the Tigris River, apparently looking for a pilot who may have bailed out of a downed plane.

The Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera aired footage Sunday of interviews with what the station identified as captured American prisoners, and also showed bodies in uniform in an Iraqi morgue that it said were Americans. The station said the prisoners were captured around Nasiriya, a major crossing point over the Euphrates River. The footage came from Iraqi television.

Four bodies could be seen lying on the floor of the room. At least five prisoners, speaking American-accented English, were interviewed. Two were bandaged.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday morning on "Meet the Press" that "there has been a report of an aircraft missing." He added that "there are, we believe, there are some American soldiers missing." He said there also could be captured journalists.

President Bush said he expected that any American military personnel taken prisioner would be treated "humanely, just like we'll treat any Iraqi prisoners." The President said, "I pray for God's comfort and God's healing powers" on behalf of those injured or killed in what he termed "an effort to make the world peaceful and more free."

Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, said 77 civilians were killed in Basra where allied forces captured the airport and a key bridge.

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