President George Bush welcomed her release yesterday as “great news”.”The President is indeed full of joy for Jessica Lynch and her family,” the presidential spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said. “He’s full of pride for the armed forces that carried out this daring rescue operation.”GI Jessica is an aspiring teacher who joined the army to get an education, her family said. She left a farming community with an unemployment rate of 15 per cent, one of the highest in West Virginia.The President was mindful of the fact that there were others unaccounted for or missing in action or prisoners, Mr Fleischer said Fifteen other Americans are formally listed as missing. Those known to be prisoners include two army Apache helicopter pilots captured on 24 March after their aircraft went down.Reports also emerged yesterday of what was clearly another rescue operation, this time involving British forces, with an awful lot less publicity. An SAS patrol that seems to have got into difficulties near Mosul in northern Iraq, losing its Land Rover, is believed to have been extricated in a helicopter rescue. For the full details we will doubtless to wait for anotherBrave Two Zero and the tell-it-call account of one of the patrol members.Meanwhile, Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, failed to secure a pledge from Turkey not to send its troops across the southern border, a move that could complicate Allied operations on the northern front.But as the war continued, people were also continuing to think about reconstruction.

In a lengthy session of Commons questions Mr Blair insisted that Iraq should be run by Iraqi people, as soon as possible after the war ends.The Prime Minister said he favoured a “broadly representative” Iraqi government that protected human rights – rather than the country being run by the UN or the coalition. “I am quite sure that is what the vast majority of the Iraqi people want to see,” he said.Putting down a marker for Mr Bush or anyone else, he went on: “It’s important that we work as coalition forces and coalition countries, in close consultation and partnership with the UN, to try to develop the right type of Iraqi interim authority that will be Iraqi in nature.”It’s in everyone’s interest to get to the fastest possible point where the Iraqi government is indeed Iraqi – not either UN or coalition-force based.”That’s fine Couldn’t be clearer But first of all, the battle for Baghdad has to be won. Invasion of Iraq Day’s events* Wednesday 8.00am BST: US Marines say they have seized a key bridge across the Tigris at Kut to take control of a main highway north towards Baghdad.* 1.26pm: US says its forces have destroyed the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard and that other Republican Guard divisions are in trouble.* 2.00: Brigadier General Vincent Brooks says US troops have crossed a “red line” around Baghdad which the military believe could trigger a chemical attack by Iraqi forces.* 6.26: US says its forces are 20 miles from Baghdad.* 7.00: Iraqi satellite TV shows Saddam Hussein meeting ministers. An award-winning BBC cameraman was killed in northern Iraq yesterday when he stood on a landmine as he climbed out of his car, the corporation confirmed last night. He was based in Tehran, and has worked for many Western news organisations.He was a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer acclaimed for his work during the Iranian revolution and the gassing of 5,000 Kurds at Halabja in 1988. He leaves a wife and a 19-year-old son.Mr Hughes was taken by ambulance to the American military hospital in Sulaymaniyah for treatment.The BBC’s director of news, Richard Sambrook, said: “Kaveh Golestan was an outstanding photojournalist who had worked in support of freedom of expression in his native Iran and elsewhere He had worked with the BBC for many years Our deepest sympathy goes to his family and friends.

This once again underlines the dangers faced by news teams covering the war in Iraq.”The loss of Mr Golestan follows the deaths of two British correspondents. Terry Lloyd, from ITN, died when his vehicle was attacked, probably by US forces, near Basra on 22 March. Gaby Rado, fromChannel 4 News, fell from a hotel roof in a Kurdish-controlled area on 30 March. Paul Moran, of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was killed on 22 March in northern Iraq.. Massive allied pressure on Baghdad intensified yesterday as US-led forces said they had destroyed a Republican Guard division that was protecting Baghdad and were continuing a rapid advance on two armoured fronts across the Euphrates and Tigris to within 20 miles of the Iraqi capital.