OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOM Baghdad hit again Cruise missiles explode in capital as ground war in south commences
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Posted: March 20, 2003 1:05 p.m. Eastern
2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Allied forces have launched a second attack on the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad today in what appears to be a more extensive hit than the one that began the war last night.
Anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies over Baghdad as cruise missiles hit military targets and air-raid sirens blared.
According to Fox News, this latest assault is not the beginning of the expected "shock and awe" campaign but rather another attack on specific areas in and around the city.
Explosions 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, reports Fox.
Meanwhile, ground forces joined the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, following the first round of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs dropped by U.S. Air Force stealth fighter-bombers.
But Iraq is fighting back, already launching Scud missiles into northern Kuwait and torching as many as four oil fields in southern Iraq.
As night fell on Baghdad, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division's artillery opened fire on Iraqi troops with Paladin self-propelled howitzers and multiple-launch rocket systems, according to press reports.
The artillery barrage reportedly signals the first phase of the ground war against Iraq.
Fox News reports GIs on the ground cheered as the sky lit up when cannons fired dozens of artillery shells.
Explosions could be heard inside Iraq and a large explosion was reported in the southern city of Basra, which is the first city targeted to fall as allied forces move in on Baghdad.
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USS Bunker Hill launches Tomahawk
Early this morning Baghdad time, warships in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf fired about 40 satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles and F-117 stealth fighters dropped 2,000-pound "bunker buster" bombs in what military officials described as a "decapitation attack" aimed at Iraq's leaders.
Intelligence that Saddam and his sons were sleeping at a private home outside Baghdad prompted the airstrikes, according to press reports.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced at a press conference this morning that coalition forces hit a "senior Iraqi leadership compound" and that damage assessment on the compound is pending.
"That was the first. It will likely not be the last. The days of the Saddam Hussein regime are numbered," warned Rumsfeld.
In response to the airstrike, Iraq launched at least four missiles - including at least one Scud - into northern Kuwait.
A correspondent for Agence France-Presse in Mutlaa, north of Kuwait City, heard a huge explosion, and minutes later saw Kuwaiti and U.S. soldiers rushing for gas masks and chemical suits.
Broadcasters, including former Marine Oliver North now reporting for Fox News in Kuwait, said the area was under attack, and U.S. Patriot missiles were being launched in attempts to intercept the Scuds.
Two missiles were intercepted by Patriots, a third was shot down by Kuwaiti military using a Patriot and a fourth missile landed harmlessly inside Kuwaiti territory. At least one of the missiles was a Scud, and the others are thought to be al Samoud 2 missiles, or a variant.
There were no casualties, and the missiles were not carrying chemical or biological warheads.
Officials say Camp New Jersey - loaded with U.S. Army troops near the border with Iraq - was the intended target.
American forces are still on alert as missiles continue to be fired in their direction.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon reports Iraqis have set fire to as many as four oil wells south and west of Basra, [17]fulfilling the fears of military planners who were braced for such a move.
'No outcome but victory'
At 10:15 p.m. Eastern Time last night, President Bush took to the airwaves to announce the U.S. military action in a [18]nationally broadcast address.
"My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger," Bush said.
"On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign."
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President Bush addresses the nation
"Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. And I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome but victory. ...
"We will defend our freedom, we will bring freedom to others, and we will prevail. May God bless our country and all who defend her," he concluded.
The action began less than two hours after the time expired on a deadline set by Bush for Saddam and his sons to leave Iraq.
Saddam himself, or perhaps a look-alike, appeared on state-run television to thunder defiance as he read from a prepared text urging Iraqis to resist the invaders and draw their swords.
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Saddam Hussein giving televised speech
"The criminal little Bush has committed a crime against humanity," Hussein said. "Let the arrogance be debased. Long live Iraq, long live jihad, long live Palestine."
When asked by reporters whether the Pentagon believed it was Saddam in the tape Rumsfeld responded, "There's debate about that."
In an earlier broadcast, Baghdad aired this message to Americans as the attack began:
"It's an inferno that awaits them. Let them try their faltering luck and they shall meet what awaits them."
CIA had fix on Saddam
The attack was ramped up after CIA Director George Tenet informed the president of intelligence of "a target of opportunity," reports the Washington Post. Namely, intelligence officials had a fix on where Saddam was, and was likely to stay for hours.
The intelligence prompted Bush to sign the launch order at 6:30 p.m., according to the paper, which amounted to a hasty improvisation from the "shock and awe" campaign mapped out.
According to the launch order, the first shots would strike through the roof and walls of an anonymous Baghdad home, and deep beneath it, in hopes of decapitating the Iraqi government in a single blow, reports the Post.
"What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict. It will be of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what has been seen before," declared Rumsfeld this morning.
"The Iraqi soldiers and officers must ask themselves whether they want to die fighting for a doomed regime," he added.
The secretary echoed the president's directions to Iraqi soldiers to not follow orders to destroy dams, flood villages or destroy oil wells. He said following such orders would be committing crimes against the Iraqi people and should be viewed as a "desperate, gasp of the Iraqi regime."
Seventeen Iraqi soldiers surrendered to coalition forces in Kuwait yesterday.
Rumsfeld urged the Iraqi people to stay in their homes and listen to the coalition radio instructions to remain safe. He said for them to stay away from military targets and any facilities where Saddam has moved military assets. He stressed there was no need to flee across the border.
Preparations for "shock and awe" campaign
Coalition forces are mobilized along Iraq's southern border and troops are in "forward battle positions," according to a British army spokesman. High-ranking Kuwaiti sources confirmed to Fox News that American and British troops moved into the demilitarized zone yesterday, which extends three miles into Kuwait and twice as far on the Iraqi side.
About 300,000 troops backed by more than 1,000 warplanes are within striking distance of Iraq.
Reuters News Agency reports troops in Kuwait were told to be ready for combat at 11:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time this morning.
The White House announced today the coalition has grown to 35 nations, with Turkey's parliament voting today to allow use of its airspace in the unfolding disarmament mission.
Rumsfeld said the coalition is now larger than that involved in the last Iraq war.
Coalition leaders said they are prepared for anything amid concern that the troops might be vulnerable to preemptive attacks by Iraqi infiltrators, Fox News said. U.S. Defense officials have warned that Iraq would use chemical weapons. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix dismissed that concern, suggesting that Iraq would not use such weapons because it would turn world opinion in favor of the U.S.
Fleischer urged Americans to "be prepared for what we hope will be as precise, short a conflict as possible."
He warned, however, "there are many unknowns and it could be a matter of some duration."
"Americans ought to be prepared for loss of life," he said. "Americans ought to be prepared for the importance of disarming Saddam Hussein to protect the peace."
Homeland insecurity
With the commencement of hostilities abroad, security on the home front was not being ignored.
The Washington Times reports terrorists have [19]targeted America's largest nuclear power plant near Phoenix, as security officials search for Iraqi government "sleeper cells" that might carry out the attack.
In response, National Guard troops were deployed to the Palo Verde nuclear plant, located in the Sonora desert 50 miles west of Phoenix.
"We understand the sensitivity of this time, and we are very, very committed to protecting the safe operation of Palo Verde," Jim McDonald, a spokesman for the Arizona Public Service Co., which owns the reactor complex, told the Times.
New York Gov. George Pataki said National Guard troops were patrolling New York City, even riding subways.
"We know that this is a two-front war," Pataki told AP Radio. "It's not just in Iraq, it's also at home, because there are terrorists who want to harm us because they despise the freedom and the tolerance that we live with every single day."
But Pataki, whose state was devastated by the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, urged people to remain calm, as there was no information that any location had been targeted for violence.
"While we want the people of New York to be alert and vigilant because these are very, very challenging times, we also want them to go about their lives and not give into the fear that is one of the terrorists' primary weapons," he said.
Though cost was in the millions of dollars, Pataki said extra security would continue as long as was necessary, with the bills being sorted out later.
"When it comes to protecting the people, you cannot put a price tag on it. You have to take the steps that you believe prudent and necessary to protect New Yorkers or - in the nation's case - Americans."
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