Posted on 03/21/2003 11:06:17 AM PST by JohnHuang2
U.S. unleashes blitz on Baghdad, TV still on air
BAGHDAD, March 21 (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces unleashed a devastating blitz on Baghdad on Friday night, triggering giant fireballs and deafening explosions and sending huge mushroom clouds above the city centre.
Missiles slammed into the main palace complex of President Saddam Hussein on the bank of the Tigris River, and key government buildings, in an onslaught that far exceeded strikes that launched the war on Thursday, Reuters correspondents said.
At around the same time, Reuters witnesses reported seeing anti-aircraft fire and explosions over the northern towns of Mosul and Kirkut.
"The earth is literally shaking in Baghdad," Reuters correspondent Khaled Oweis said, watching from across the river.
Fires broke out in the wrecked buildings. Ambulances and police cars rushed around otherwise deserted streets of the city, sirens wailing.
"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.
"Black smoke is mushrooming into the air over the presidential palace compound," she said.
Occasionally, the figure of someone caught outside by the bombardment scurried across the street in search of shelter.
The district housing the information ministry and Iraqi television was among those hit, but state television remained on air.
In a lull after the blitz, it broadcast footage showing Saddam and his son Qusay, who is in charge of the defence of the capital and Saddam's power base around Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) to the northwest. It was unclear when the footage was shot.
In the north, Mosul and Kirkuk came under attack.
"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 40 km (25 miles) from the city of Mosul.
"It's a very clear and cloudless sky."
Reuters reporter Joe Logan in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, on high ground with a view to Kirkuk, an oil city some 30 km (20 miles) away in government-held territory, saw anti-aircraft fire over the city and heard several big explosions.
"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."
In southern Iraq, all appeared to be quiet in the direction of the second city of Basra -- a likely target of a land invasion that began on Thursday night.
Reuters reporters in northern Kuwait, who watched U.S. and British forces invade Iraq under the cover of a huge barrage the previous night, said that it was quiet along that front on Friday evening.
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.
I am surprised we haven't taken over their television yet.
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