- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United
States attacked key targets in Baghdad with cruise missiles on Thursday,
setting government buildings on fire in a ferocious assault to destroy
the rule of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
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- Eyewitnesses in the Iraqi capital reported several explosions
near government buildings as cruise missiles swooped down, shaking the
city with massive explosions. There was relatively little Iraqi anti-aircraft
fire.
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- Reuters reporter Nadim Ladki said missiles flew in at
a very low altitude and hit several targets. He could see buildings ablaze
in the southeast of the city and around the planning ministry in the center
of the Baghdad.
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- Fire fighters and ambulances were driving to the scene
but U.S. television networks showed the flames roaring out of control and
smoke rising high into the night sky.
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- It was the second round of U.S. attacks after Saddam
defied a U.S. ultimatum to leave the country. The previous raid at dawn
on Thursday targeted the Iraqi president himself and his senior leadership
but the results were not clear.
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- A British military source said the main offensive was
about to begin. U.S. officials had vowed a massive assault against Iraqi
leaders and soldiers to the point that they would be too dazed and demoralized
to resist. That barrage had yet to unfold in its full ferocity.
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- Units of the U.S Marine First Expeditionary Force crossed
from Kuwait into southern Iraq to begin securing positions for a thrust
northward by U.S. and British troops massed in Kuwait near the border,
U.S. officials said on Thursday.
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- The Kuwaiti news agency said U.S.-led troops had captured
the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr.
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- A number of Iraqi troops, who had been laying a mine
field, surrendered to U.S. Marines who had just crossed into Iraq, a CBS
radio reporter traveling with the unit said.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the initial missile
and bombing attacks in and around Baghdad were just a first taste of what
would soon be unleashed.
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- "What will follow will not be a repeat of any other
conflict. It will be of a force and scope and scale that has been beyond
what has been seen before," he said.
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- As night fell in Baghdad, eyewitnesses told Reuters that
U.S. forces had launched a new artillery attack near the Iraq-Kuwait border,
and large explosions were reported in the direction of the Iraqi city of
Basra.
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- INTENSE BARRAGE
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- "There has been another intense barrage," said
Reuters correspondent David Fox from near the border. "The first lot
of big explosions came from the direction of Basra and then there were
more to west of that."
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- Other reporters saw U.S. missiles strike areas in southern
Iraq as well as helicopter gunships firing at ground targets. About 280,000
U.S. and British troops are in the Gulf region, many of them in Kuwait,
poised to invade Iraq.
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- Iraq responded to the first U.S. attack with several
missile strikes on northern Kuwait. All missed their targets or were intercepted
by U.S. missiles. The Iraqis also said they shot down a U.S. helicopter
but there was no confirmation.
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- Saddam appeared on television three hours after the first
strikes on Baghdad, denouncing the "criminal, reckless little Bush."
He urged Iraqis to resist the coming U.S. invasion and promised a historic
victory.
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- Rumsfeld said there was some debate as to whether the
man that appeared was really Saddam or one of his doubles, but some viewers
were convinced the voice was authentic.
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- WALL STREET RALLIES
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- On Wall Street, stocks trimmed steep losses on unconfirmed
rumors broadcast by some U.S. networks that Saddam may have been hit in
Thursday's raid. Share prices moved into positive territory as news of
the second round of air attacks came in.
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- Rumsfeld urged Iraqi citizens to stay in their homes
and told Iraqi troops to disobey any orders to use chemical weapons or
destroy oil wells. He said those who surrendered would have a place in
a future free Iraq but those who fought would share Saddam's fate.
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- The United States launched the preemptive war to remove
Saddam from power, saying he continued to develop weapons of mass destruction
that had to be neutralized before they could be used. Iraq denies having
such weapons.
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- Rumsfeld also said Iraq may have set fire to three or
four oil wells in the south of the country. Kuwait television reported
that several oil wells near Basra had been set alight by Iraqi troops.
Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed denied the reports.
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- Reaction to the U.S. attack was swift and largely negative,
as nations that had opposed the American effort to disarm Iraq decried
the conflict and Arab protesters took to the streets.
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- In the United States, thousands of protesters, some chained
together, blocked streets in San Francisco and other cities, saying they
wanted to show the world many Americans oppose the war. U.S. polls have
shown a large majority of Americans rallying behind Bush and the war.
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- Three hours after the raids began, a grim-faced Saddam
appeared on state television in military uniform, black beret and thick-rimmed
glasses.
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- "The criminal little Bush has committed a crime
against humanity," he said, reading from notes.
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- Several hours after the first U.S. raids on Baghdad,
a Kuwaiti defense ministry spokesman said an Iraqi Scud and two smaller
missiles hit northern Kuwait. U.S. Marines said one missile landed near
their desert camp.
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- A Kuwaiti defense ministry spokesman said a U.S. Patriot
anti-missile defense battery brought down two Iraqi Scuds.
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