IRAQ - March 23 - Allied Forces Jolted By Setbacks.

US and British forces suffer a series of setbacks as they push towards Baghdad. With Baghdad and other targets under aerial bombardment for the 4th day, armoured units of the US army's 3rd Infantry Division reach the outskirts of Najaf, just 100 miles south of the city. But after what the US military described as the "toughest day of resistance" so far, US Pres. Bush warned it would "take a while" for the US to achieve victory. He said: "It is important for the American people to realise that this war has just begun". Washington reacted angrily to television pictures released by Baghdad of five US prisoners of war, including one woman soldier, captured in an ambush by Iraqi forces in one of several serious clashes. Bush warned Baghdad to treat the prisoners humanely, as required by the Geneva Convention. Pictures of the US prisoners, the first to be seized in the 4-day-old campaign, were accompanied by graphic film of at least 4 US soldiers killed in the same incident. The prisoners were almost certainly among 12 soldiers the US said were missing after a supply convoy which took a wrong turn was ambushed near Nasiriyah on the Euphrates river about 200 miles south-east of Baghdad. The US said a number of its troops was also killed or wounded in an Iraqi counter-attack at Nasiriyah, which they described as the biggest fight of the war so far. Baghdad said 25 US and British soldiers were killed, but US officials said fewer than 10 US soldiers died. Nasiriyah is vital as it controls the river crossing northwards to Baghdad. Iraqi forces also put up spirited resistance around Najaf and on at least two other battle fronts. Late at night, Patriot missiles were intercepted a missile attack on Kuwait. Elsewhere, a US soldier was killed and 15 injured when a Muslim fellow serviceman threw grenades at sleeping members of his own unit in Kuwait and a British warplane was mistakenly downed by US Patriot missiles. (It was the third serious air accident caused by technical or human error in four days - on March 22 six British soldiers and one US navy officer died when two Royal Navy helicopters collided over the Gulf). British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon voiced regret at the latest accident and said an urgent review was underway. He said: "There is no single technological solution to this problem. It is about having a whole set of procedures in place. Sadly on this occasion they have not worked". US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted the incidents did not threaten the overall advance on Baghdad and the ultimate defeat of the Saddam regime. In Baghdad, the authorities promised a hard fight, with Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan saying: "We have allowed them to cross the desert. I tell you, we wish and beg that they come to Baghdad so that we will teach a lesson to this evil administration and all who co-operate with her".