Air assault unleashed

By David Espo
Associated Press

The United States launched a ferocious, around-the-clock aerial assault on military targets in Baghdad and other cities yesterday, and invading ground troops penetrated 100 miles into Iraq. The ancient capital's skyline exploded in balls of flame, leaving Saddam Hussein's Old Palace compound and other symbols of his government ablaze.

Iraqi soldiers surrendered to Marines following a gunbattle yesterday at the headquarters of the Iraqi 51st and 32nd mechanized infantry divisions near Az Bayer. In all, 8,000 soldiers of the 51st Infantry Division surrendered to coalition commanders. Associated Press

After an overnight reprieve, a huge explosion shook the center of Baghdad, a city of 5 million, before dawn today and aircraft could be heard overhead. A halo of smoke hung in the sky. The city's nine-story intelligence headquarters appeared to have been damaged by allied fire.

Units moved into western airfield complexes where Iraq was believed to have Scud missiles capable of reaching Israel, and possibly weapons of mass destruction.

"We're going at it hammer and tongs," said Capt. Mark Fox, back aboard the USS Constellation after a bombing run that was part of a widely heralded Pentagon effort to "shock and awe" the Iraqis.

Military commanders reported that two Marines were killed by enemy fire, the first coalition combat deaths in the 3-day-old Operation Iraqi Freedom. One died trying to secure an oil pumping station; the other fell in the battle for Umm Qasr, the port city taken after a fight.

Elsewhere, two Royal Navy helicopters collided in the Gulf region early today and seven crew members were killed, a British military spokesman said. One of the dead was a U.S. Navy officer.

Along the main highway leading into southern Iraq, orange flames shot up from two major oil pipelines as U.S. and British convoys rumbled past. Cobra attack helicopters flew overhead and bedraggled Iraqis watched blankly from the side of the road.

Iraqi troops surrendered in large numbers — some so eagerly that they turned themselves in to journalists accompanying American forces. But the regime gave no clear sign of quitting.

In an address today, Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf reassured Iraqis that the fighting was "fierce," and claimed Iraqi forces had destroyed five tanks.

He said most of those captured by allied forces were civilians, not soldiers. He added that more than 200 Iraqis had been injured, including women, children and other civilians who were being treated at five hospitals.

Earlier, when asked whether Iraq plans a counterattack, al-Sahhaf said, "Our leadership and our armed forces will decide this, in what guarantees the defeat of those mercenaries, God willing."

"This criminal (Bush) in the White House is a stupid criminal," he added.

The Iraqi regime released a video of Saddam in his uniform meeting with his son Qusai, the commander of the Republican Guard, and the defense minister, Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad, but it was unclear when the video was made.

There was continued debate among U.S. intelligence officials over the fate of Saddam, and whether he had been wounded or even killed in a Wednesday night strike on a building in Baghdad.

Fox News reported last night that U.S. intelligence has pictures of Saddam being placed on a stretcher outside the wreckage of the building.

Whether or not Saddam was alive, U.S. intelligence officials said the Iraqi command and control system was in disarray, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "The regime is starting to lose control of their country."

The aerial onslaught was designed to accelerate that.

The U.S. Central Command, which is running the war, said the targets included military command and control installations and buildings in and around Baghdad, as well as targets in the northern cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.

One senior defense official said U.S. and British warplanes flying from more than 30 bases would fly about 1,500 strike missions during the first 24 hours of the accelerated campaign. Plans called for the launch of nearly 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

After weeks of delay, Turkey relented and agreed to let combat aircraft fly over their territory. At the same time, however, Turkey sent 1,000 troops into northern Iraq, and the government said it would send more to prevent Iraqi Kurds from creating an independent state. The United States strongly opposes any unilateral move by Turkey into northern Iraq.

In a strike at terrorism in northern Iraq, U.S. forces fired five missiles at the base of an Islamic militant group allegedly linked to the al-Qaida network, Kurdish officials said. Washington has claimed that the group, Ansar al-Islam, connects Saddam to al-Qaida.

In Washington, President Bush said, "We're making progress" toward the goal of liberating Iraq. Before heading to Camp David for the weekend, Bush also sent lawmakers formal notification of his decision to send troops into combat.

In the southern town of Safwan, Marines hauled down giant street portraits of Saddam, and some local residents joined Maj. David Gurfein in a cheer.

"Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis," he yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

American units advancing west of the southern city of Basra secured the Rumeila field, whose daily output of 1.3 million barrels makes it Iraq's most productive.

One military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. Navy SEAL commandos took control of two terminals in the Persian Gulf where Iraqi oil can be loaded onto huge tanker ships. At least one of the terminals contained explosives that had not yet been wired for detonation, the official said.

Not far away, Australian forces intercepted an Iraqi patrol boat filled with sea mines and other equipment.

Control of Umm Qasr, located along the Kuwait border about 290 miles southeast of Baghdad, gives U.S. and British forces access to a port for military and humanitarian supplies and helps speed the clearing of Iraqi resistance in the south.