The Associated Press

U.S. troops dashed inside Baghdad on Saturday, blasting targets nestled in palm trees, to show they can move at will against Iraq's beleaguered defenders. Allies adapted their air campaign to prepare for a climactic ground assault on the capital.

Saddam Hussein's black-clad militia -- his desperadoes -- suddenly surfaced in downtown Baghdad and Iraqi troops deployed at strategic city points at nightfall, in preparation for a showdown.

But tens of thousands of citizens fled, no longer believing the assurances of their leaders that the American ground campaign was being beaten back.

U.S. officials declared a near chokehold on the capital even while warning that many other parts of Iraq are not yet under allied control.

"The fight is far from finished," Maj. Gen. Gene Renuart told a briefing at Central Command's Qatar headquarters.

U.S. officials said they retooled their air strikes to support a coming ground assault on the capital while hoping Iraqis would give up the fight before bloody urban combat became necessary.

Two Marine pilots were killed Saturday when their Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed in central Iraq. And the Pentagon confirmed the first combat death of an American woman in the war -- Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, of Tuba City, Ariz.