Michael Bluth
03-20-2003, 09:45 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Heavy detonations, air raid sirens and the crackle of anti-aircraft fire thundered through Baghdad late Thursday as the Iraqi capital faced a second night of U.S.-led attacks.
With U.S. forces firing cruise missiles against Republican Guard strongholds, red and white tracers streaked across the sky and the flash of explosions was seen on the horizon. Reporters familiar with the city said television pictures apparently showed Saddam's main presidential complex on fire.
The anti-aircraft fire was reminiscent of — but less intense than — what was seen in the skies over Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War.
Explosions also could be heard from the west side of the Tigris River, where at least two of Saddam Hussein's palaces and the intelligence headquarters are located. Other blasts and large clouds of gray smoke appeared closer to the heart of the city.
Witnesses said the attack hit a 10-story building that appeared to be part of the presidential compound. The building was on fire.
Meanwhile, F-14 and F-18 jets took off from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the eastern Mediterranean, armed with missiles and bombs.
This round of attacks came at the end of a day that began with U.S. forces launching cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs. Baghdad had last been bombed in December 1998, when U.S. missiles hit military targets around the city to punish Iraq for blocking U.N. weapons inspectors.
Hospitals treated some people with shrapnel wounds, and Iraqi officials said at least one person was killed.
After a mostly quiet day that even saw some children on the streets riding bicycles or playing soccer, fewer and fewer people appeared on Baghdad's normally bustling streets as a cool and breezy nightfall approached. Residents said many people rushed to homes, shelters or the countryside in anticipation of night attacks.
Al-Shabab television, owned by Saddam's son, Odai, reported the Iraqi leader met Thursday with his top aides to "review military and other measures to resist the aggression." It said those attending the meeting included Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.
A subdued Saddam appeared on state-run television after the air strike on Baghdad, accusing the United States of a "shameful crime" and urging his people to "draw your sword" against the invaders.
"We will resist the invaders, and God willing, we will force them to reach the limits where they will lose their patience and thus lose the illusions they have entertained," the Iraqi president, in full military uniform, said in an address peppered with citations from the Quran.
However, Saddam and his sons were targeted in the opening hours of the war, after CIA Director George J. Tenet told President Bush that U.S. intelligence believed it had a probable fix on the residence where Saddam and other Iraqi leaders would be sleeping early Thursday, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Later, a senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said intelligence was picking up signs and "circumstantial evidence" that Saddam and his senior leadership were either incapacitated or out of communication with battlefield commanders. It was too early to say if they were killed or wounded.
After the first round of attacks, nine people were in serious but stable condition with shrapnel injuries at Baghdad's Al-Yarmouk Hospital, Dr. Jamal Abed Hassan said. They included six members of one family that was having breakfast when their town 20 miles west of Baghdad was hit, the doctor said.
"Bush, Bush, listen carefully. We all love Saddam Hussein," one family member, Hamad Abdullah, said as she recovered from injuries in both legs and recited a chant from recent government-organized demonstrations.
Al-Kindi Hospital in the working class Al-Nahda district treated five people for wounds, including Iraqi TV journalist Anmar Waheed and his 36-year-old sister, who were hurt as they tried to reach a shelter, according to Dr. Osama Saleh al-Dilimi.
Thursday began with American messages broadcast on Iraqi airwaves: "This is the day you have been waiting for."
Air sirens first blared about 5:30 a.m. in the Iraqi capital, and soon strong explosions could be heard. Most seemed to be outside the city, but one was followed by a ball of fire toward the southern part of Baghdad.
Allied warplanes also hit targets in western Iraq, bombing at least one mobile Scud missile site. Frequent sonic booms and the aircraft sounds also could be heard in northern Iraq, above the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish autonomous enclave.
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said coalition forces hit a customs compound and an Iraqi TV facility in western Iraq and had jammed an Iraqi satellite TV station. He said two civilian locations were hit south of Baghdad.
Hundreds of armed members of Saddam's Baath party and security forces took up positions in Baghdad after the sirens went off. The streets were mostly empty of civilians — and of regular army troops or armor.
Some coffee shops and cheap restaurants were open, and even some of the city's double-decker public buses were moving in very light traffic. Some children were out on the streets riding bicycles or playing soccer.
A Baath Party member, Hussein Ilwan, 47, spent the night the war began on his guard post, behind sandbags in the upscale al Mansour area of the capital. Ilwan said he wants "one of two things: Either a dignified life, or an honorable death."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030320/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_iraq_13
With U.S. forces firing cruise missiles against Republican Guard strongholds, red and white tracers streaked across the sky and the flash of explosions was seen on the horizon. Reporters familiar with the city said television pictures apparently showed Saddam's main presidential complex on fire.
The anti-aircraft fire was reminiscent of — but less intense than — what was seen in the skies over Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War.
Explosions also could be heard from the west side of the Tigris River, where at least two of Saddam Hussein's palaces and the intelligence headquarters are located. Other blasts and large clouds of gray smoke appeared closer to the heart of the city.
Witnesses said the attack hit a 10-story building that appeared to be part of the presidential compound. The building was on fire.
Meanwhile, F-14 and F-18 jets took off from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the eastern Mediterranean, armed with missiles and bombs.
This round of attacks came at the end of a day that began with U.S. forces launching cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs. Baghdad had last been bombed in December 1998, when U.S. missiles hit military targets around the city to punish Iraq for blocking U.N. weapons inspectors.
Hospitals treated some people with shrapnel wounds, and Iraqi officials said at least one person was killed.
After a mostly quiet day that even saw some children on the streets riding bicycles or playing soccer, fewer and fewer people appeared on Baghdad's normally bustling streets as a cool and breezy nightfall approached. Residents said many people rushed to homes, shelters or the countryside in anticipation of night attacks.
Al-Shabab television, owned by Saddam's son, Odai, reported the Iraqi leader met Thursday with his top aides to "review military and other measures to resist the aggression." It said those attending the meeting included Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.
A subdued Saddam appeared on state-run television after the air strike on Baghdad, accusing the United States of a "shameful crime" and urging his people to "draw your sword" against the invaders.
"We will resist the invaders, and God willing, we will force them to reach the limits where they will lose their patience and thus lose the illusions they have entertained," the Iraqi president, in full military uniform, said in an address peppered with citations from the Quran.
However, Saddam and his sons were targeted in the opening hours of the war, after CIA Director George J. Tenet told President Bush that U.S. intelligence believed it had a probable fix on the residence where Saddam and other Iraqi leaders would be sleeping early Thursday, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Later, a senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said intelligence was picking up signs and "circumstantial evidence" that Saddam and his senior leadership were either incapacitated or out of communication with battlefield commanders. It was too early to say if they were killed or wounded.
After the first round of attacks, nine people were in serious but stable condition with shrapnel injuries at Baghdad's Al-Yarmouk Hospital, Dr. Jamal Abed Hassan said. They included six members of one family that was having breakfast when their town 20 miles west of Baghdad was hit, the doctor said.
"Bush, Bush, listen carefully. We all love Saddam Hussein," one family member, Hamad Abdullah, said as she recovered from injuries in both legs and recited a chant from recent government-organized demonstrations.
Al-Kindi Hospital in the working class Al-Nahda district treated five people for wounds, including Iraqi TV journalist Anmar Waheed and his 36-year-old sister, who were hurt as they tried to reach a shelter, according to Dr. Osama Saleh al-Dilimi.
Thursday began with American messages broadcast on Iraqi airwaves: "This is the day you have been waiting for."
Air sirens first blared about 5:30 a.m. in the Iraqi capital, and soon strong explosions could be heard. Most seemed to be outside the city, but one was followed by a ball of fire toward the southern part of Baghdad.
Allied warplanes also hit targets in western Iraq, bombing at least one mobile Scud missile site. Frequent sonic booms and the aircraft sounds also could be heard in northern Iraq, above the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish autonomous enclave.
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said coalition forces hit a customs compound and an Iraqi TV facility in western Iraq and had jammed an Iraqi satellite TV station. He said two civilian locations were hit south of Baghdad.
Hundreds of armed members of Saddam's Baath party and security forces took up positions in Baghdad after the sirens went off. The streets were mostly empty of civilians — and of regular army troops or armor.
Some coffee shops and cheap restaurants were open, and even some of the city's double-decker public buses were moving in very light traffic. Some children were out on the streets riding bicycles or playing soccer.
A Baath Party member, Hussein Ilwan, 47, spent the night the war began on his guard post, behind sandbags in the upscale al Mansour area of the capital. Ilwan said he wants "one of two things: Either a dignified life, or an honorable death."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030320/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_iraq_13