The U.S. launched the opening salvo Wednesday night of a war
to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, firing cruise missiles and
precision-guided bombs against selected targets in Baghdad.
No word on the specific targets - or on the damage - was immediately
available.
However, the single strike appears to be the only military action as
hostilities commenced. No other troop movements or air strikes by the U.S.-led
coalition have been reported.
The air attack occurred approximately two hours after the U.S.-imposed
deadline for Saddam to leave Iraq passed.
U.S. President George W. Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office just
after antiaircraft fire was reported in Baghdad - saying the attack was against
"targets of military opportunity" aimed at Iraq's leaders.
One White House official said the attack was the result of fresh intelligence
that prompted an earlier-than-planned opening strike.
One U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified
them as "leadership targets," members of the regime's ruling group, but said he
was not certain whether Saddam himself was one of them.
Even so, it was clear from Bush's words -he called it the opening stages of a
"broad and concerted campaign" -that the war to topple the Iraqi dictator and
eliminate his weapons of mass destruction had begun.
"This will not be a campaign of half-measures and we will accept no outcome
but victory," Bush said in an Oval Office address shortly after explosions
ricocheted through the predawn light of the Iraqi capital.
However, after the address, Bush reportedly retired for the evening. Also,
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
left the White House at that point.
Earlier in Baghdad, antiaircraft tracer fire arced across the Baghdad sky as
the American munitions bore in on their targets. A ball of fire shot skyward
after one explosion.
Saddam's state-run television broadcast a message of defiance to Americans in
return: "It's an inferno that awaits them. Let them try their faltering luck and
they shall meet what awaits them."

U.S. Preparations For Attack

Earlier in the day, Bush told Congress the attack was part of a worldwide war
against terrorism, and at the same time as the U.S. struck in Iraq, American
forces launched a raid in Afghanistan. About 1,000 members of the 82nd Airborne
Division moved into villages in southeastern Afghanistan, looking for members of
the al-Qaida network.
In Iraq, an American-led invasion force of 300,000 troops awaited the order to
strike more broadly. U.S. and British forces massed in the Kuwaiti desert close
to the Iraqi border, and giant B-52 warplanes were loaded with bombs, and
Tomahawk missile-carrying ships were in position, all awaiting an attack order
from Bush.
Bush had given Saddam 48 hours to leave the country or face war.
The ultimatum expired at 8 p.m. EST - 4 a.m. Thursday in Baghdad - its
population shrunken in recent days by an exodus of thousands of fearful
residents.
Not long after, White House chief of staff Andrew Card informed the president
that intelligence officials had no information that Saddam had left Iraq, and
Saddam's regime gave every appearance of digging in.
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the nation "ought to be
prepared for the loss" of American lives once the military effort to depose
Saddam and destroy weapons of mass destruction begins.