U.S. bombs Iraq, hunts for Saddam

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BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces opened an assault on Iraq with a barrage of 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles that slammed into three targets around Baghdad in an attempt to hit Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, military officials said.

A Tomahawk missile launches from the USS Bunker Hill in the Persian Gulf early today. More than 40 missiles were fired from six warships. Gannett News Service

Explosions and antiaircraft fire erupted in the Iraqi capital at dawn as armored vehicles of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division began moving into position to cross a sand berm into Iraq from Kuwait. Saddam appeared on Iraqi television hours after the attack and delivered a defiant call to Iraqis to resist an American invasion.

The cruise missiles were fired from six Navy ships — three cruisers, a destroyer and two submarines, including the Pearl Harbor-based USS Cheyenne, Navy officials said.

Rear Adm. John M. Kelly told reporters on the USS Abraham Lincoln that Operation Iraqi Freedom was underway as warplanes took off from the carrier.

The cruise missile and bomb attack came as the U.S. and British forces began forming into "ground assault convoys" along the Iraqi-Kuwait border in preparation for the invasion.

Earlier yesterday, U.S. forces had prepared the battlefield by intensifying bombing and stepping up reconnaissance operations inside Iraq. These operations were carried out by an unknown number of Special Operations troops and specialized Marine and Army units, U.S. defense officials said. They were accompanied by a series of U.S. air strikes across the breadth of southern Iraq, from the Jordanian border in the west to near the Iranian border in the east, the U.S. Central Command announced. The air strikes across the south continued early today, officials said.

As dawn broke, air raid sirens blared, and yellow and white tracers from Iraqi antiaircraft fire streaked across Baghdad. Several large explosions rocked the capital, a ball of fire flared in the southern sky. A quick succession of bright yellow flashes appeared over an area near the airport.

"The opening stages of the disarmament of the Iraqi regime have begun," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer declared shortly after 9:30 last night in Washington, or 5:30 a.m. in Baghdad. Forty-five minutes later, Bush told the American people that he had ordered coalition forces to strike "selected targets of military importance" in Iraq.

Government sources in Washington said the air attack was aimed at a "target of opportunity," which the source described as "senior elements of Iraqi leadership." The target was on the outskirts of Baghdad, the source added, in a "residential facility."

Three hours after the attack, Saddam, wearing a military uniform, black beret and glasses, appeared on state television and hurled defiance at the U.S. president. "The criminal little Bush has committed a crime against humanity," Saddam said.

Seconds into his speech, the broadcast went off the air but came back on a short time later. The broadcast opened with the national anthem and a picture of Saddam with the Iraqi flag, and he started his comments by a reading a Koranic verse.

Saddam switched back and forth between two sets of papers, on which his remarks appeared to be handwritten. His remarks were laced with religious terms and military hyperbole.

Iraqi television said the speech was live, coming just a few hours after the first air raids as if to prove the Americans had missed their target. But it was not possible to confirm that the broadcast was indeed live. Some observers speculated whether it was one of Saddam's look-alikes that spoke.

Bush had given Saddam 48 hours to relinquish power and flee. The explosions began about 90 minutes after the deadline expired.

"These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign," Bush said in his televised address from the Oval Office at the White House. "We have no ambitions in Iraq except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people.

"Our forces will be coming home as soon as their work is done."

Bradley fighting vehicles from the A Company 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry Regiment convoy to a position near the Iraqi border. Maj. Gen. Buford Blount III, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said hundreds of vehicles could be lost to rough terrain. Associated Press

By its own accounts, the United States planned to overwhelm the Iraqis with shocking firepower, using Tomahawk cruise missiles, precision-guided bombs and electronic jamming devices. The outgunned Saddam hoped to draw U.S. and allied British troops into deadly and difficult urban warfare as he makes a last stand in Baghdad or possibly his home region of Tikrit, to the north.

Even before war began, much of the Middle East — and the world — was tight with tension and dread. Aid workers in neighboring Jordan and Kuwait braced for thousands of war refugees.

Seventeen Iraqi soldiers surrendered to U.S. forces along the Kuwaiti border yesterday, reported the U.S. Central Command, headquartered in Doha, Qatar.

U.S. officials were eager to spread the news of the surrender, citing it as evidence that a persistent propaganda program was working. Tons of leaflets — 2 million yesterday alone — have been dropped over parts of Iraq by American aircraft to persuade Iraqi forces to give up, return to their barracks or at least hold fire.

U.S. Marine and Army mechanized and infantry battalions rolled through a fierce sandstorm yesterday afternoon and moved into position along Kuwait's northern border with Iraq, while Saddam's forces were reported to be concealing weaponry and aircraft and mounting defenses around Baghdad.

At the same time, the United States sent warplanes to attack Iraqi missile systems and artillery near the southern port city of Basra, about 40 miles from Kuwait.

A senior military official said the artillery posed a danger to the thousands of American and British soldiers as they moved ever closer to the Iraqi border.

"They were aimed at our troops," the official said. "Obviously, as the potential for hostilities gets closer and closer, you have to get to a point where you can jump off."

During the afternoon and evening yesterday, armed security guards fanned out throughout Baghdad and took up defensive positions along its southern edge. Some residents headed for bomb shelters or into the countryside in a desperate attempt to escape. Others assumed defensive posts along sandbag-lined intersections and atop government buildings.

Then a pall seemed to settle on the city, accentuated by hazy skies turned yellow by the desert sandstorm. A city of 6 million people became a place of empty streets and worried silence.

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz appeared before journalists to belie rumors that he had defected or been killed. He predicted a long, bloody battle if the United States invaded. "I am carrying my pistol," he said, "to confirm to you that we are ready to fight the aggressors."

Information Minister Mohammed Said Sahaf warned that American soldiers faced "certain death."

Bush had finalized war plans yesterday afternoon, amid an air of expectancy. During those preparations, Fleischer, the White House press secretary, made a point of reminding Americans that war against Iraq would be costly.

"Americans ought to be prepared for a loss of life," he said. But he said the president was at peace with using military force.

As hundreds of front-line troops, likely to be the first into Baghdad, moved into their final forward positions on the northwestern Kuwaiti desert, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division formed long convoys, obscured by one of Kuwait's infamous sandstorms, and edged closer to the Iraqi border.

When the dust settled and dusk fell, a vast array of men and equipment was poised within five miles of the border line.

"I don't know whether to be excited or nervous," Spec. David M. Beebe, 20, of Gadsden, Ala., said as he sat atop an M113 armored personnel carrier. He used binoculars to scan the other side of the border.

"Now, we are waiting for word from higher," said 1st Sgt. Michael "Todd" Hibbs, 36, of Boise, Idaho.

As darkness fell and sentries took to their posts, Hibbs sent a final message of the night to his troops. He told them to get some rest.

"You're going to need it tomorrow," he said. "We've got some long days coming up."