- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led
forces unleashed a devastating blitz on Baghdad on Friday night, triggering
giant fireballs, deafening explosions and huge mushroom clouds above the
city center.
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- Missiles slammed into palaces of President Saddam Hussein,
and key government buildings, in an onslaught that far exceeded strikes
that launched the war on Thursday, Reuters correspondents said.
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- "The earth is literally shaking in Baghdad,"
Reuters correspondent Khaled Oweis said.
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- Fires broke out in the wrecked buildings. Ambulances
rushed around the city, sirens wailing.
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- "The sky is totally lit," said Reuters correspondent
Samia Nakhoul, adding that the strikes appeared to be targeting the Republican
Guard and the main symbols of Saddam's rule.
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- "Black smoke is mushrooming into the air over the
presidential palace compound," she said.
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- To the north, Reuters witnesses reported seeing anti-aircraft
fire and explosions over the northern towns of Mosul and Kirkut.
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- "I can see a light patch where the city is behind
a ridge. I can see anti-aircraft fire and the lights of what seem to be
planes flying past," said Sebastian Alison about 25 miles from the
city of Mosul.
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- "It's a very clear and cloudless sky."
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- Reuters reporter Joe Logan in Kurdish-held northern Iraq,
on high ground with a view to Kirkuk, an oil city 20 miles away in government-held
territory, saw anti-aircraft fire over the city and heard several big explosions.
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- "I saw half a dozen bright white flashes, probably
around the outskirts of Kirkuk and then heard several booms," he said.
"There was a lot of anti-aircraft fire...Then there were several more
flashes nearer the city and I can see smoke rising from one site near the
city."
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- U.S.-led forces struck Baghdad with cruise missiles and
bombs on Thursday in two waves, at dawn and late at night at the start
of a U.S.-led strikes aimed at Saddam and other Iraqi leaders.
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