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Mon 04 Apr 2003Fierce battles as US troops remain in BaghdadUS forces thrust into the heart of Baghdad today, raiding two of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces. US commanders refused to say how long US troops would stay in the city - but as night fell this evening they were still occupying Saddam Hussein's main palace.US Central Command claimed much of Baghdad was no longer in the hands of Saddam's regime and that the city had been left "isolated". "I would characterise what we're doing in Baghdad as having isolated Baghdad, that is that we have checkpoints at all of the major arteries leading in and out of the city," Central Command spokeswoman Major Rumi Nielson-Green told Fox News.