U.S.-led coalition forces, backed by tanks and helicopters, pushed into the center of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf on Friday, pounding the positions of militant supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

As U.S. and British troops took territory in southern Iraq on the first day of the ground war, some seven oil fires were set by retreating Iraqi troops, British Defense Minister Geoffrey Hoon said Friday.