Saddam, sons targeted in strike

MSNBC.com ^

[GulliverSwift]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 8 — A U.S. Air Force warplane dropped four enormous bombs Monday on a residential neighborhood where “extremely reliable” intelligence information indicated that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons were staying, senior administration officials told NBC News. The sources would not rule out the possibility that Saddam could have moved before the planes struck, but they said it was highly likely that he and his sons were dead if they were still there when the bombs hit.

BASED ON an intelligence source on the ground in Baghdad, U.S. military officials were confident that Saddam and his sons, Uday and Qusay, were attending a meeting in the neighborhood, senior officials said.
Officials quickly called in Air Force jets to strike the location Monday with four GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition weapons, the 2,000-pound smart bombs known as “bunker busters.” Diplomatic officials and officials at the Pentagon told NBC News that they were highly confident that they killed everyone at the meeting.
Military officials at U.S. Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar, confirmed the airstrike but would not comment on its possible effect.

BUSY DAY FOR COALITION
If Saddam was killed, U.S. military planners would have achieved one of their prime objectives in the war. It would cap a dramatic day in which U.S. forces established a foothold in one of Saddam’s palaces in Baghdad after swooping into the city the day before.
Coalition forces moved to cut off escape routes from the capital. Meanwhile, in a city near Baghdad, the military was led to a site where suspicious chemical compounds were stored — a discovery that, if verified, could prove that Iraq had continued its banned weapons programs.
U.S. troops remained in the presidential compound on the west bank of the Tigris River, apparently determined to deliver a powerful message to residents and Saddam loyalists that his regime was broken.
They had been part of an early morning assault by more than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. The attack was a power play designed to prove to Saddam and the Iraqi people that “we can come and go at our pleasure,” a U.S. military official told NBC News on condition of anonymity.

[GulliverSwift]

Wow, MSNBC first, and not the Coran News Network.

[GulliverSwift]

MSNBC needs all the help it can get.

[Timesink]

Has CNN gotten a single scoop in this entire war?

[_Jim]

NBC just made the announcement with a break-in on network programming ...

[antaresequity]

Count on this:

An armored task force is moving to secure the site

That smirk on Tommy Franks face today while walking down the hallway upon returning to Quatar and when asked: "how long is this going to take" ...means that he knew....the intel was hard and he was confident

[429CJ]

Would their be anything left of the bodies to confirm?

Will there always be a suspision (sp) that he is still out there?

[Allan]

He's dead again!!

[429CJ]

This just in:

Bagdad Bob says that Iraqi forces bombed the White House.

[1poedpatriot]

THIS JUST IN : Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq's Minister of Information: "They said they have entered Baghdad in 65 tanks, into the centre of the city, and I am telling you this is not true. This is part of their sick game. We have slaughtered three-quarters of them so far. There is no presence of the American columns in Baghdad at all. Their columns are slaughtered and they have been fed a sour taste, a poison, by the brave forces of Saddam Hussein!" "Saddam Hussein is sunning on the banks of the TIGRIS and enjoying a date pie ".

[dinok]

Its a pure guess at this time from seeing them go in a building.

Saddam's guards that defected said that many of his bunkers have entrances in one building and tunnels to take them to the bunker.

It's probably how he got out of the last bunker strike.
Let's wait before we count him out.

[the Deejay]

"Bagdad Bob says that Iraqi forces bombed the White House. "

This would NOT surprise me!

[AnnO]

Please let it be Saddam and sons and enough DNA to prove it! Please, Please, Please!!!!!

[College Repub]

I think they've had more interviews with key leaders of the protests.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[Cabbages and Kings]

Bagdad Bob is correct! It would have been impossible for the Americans to have killed Saddam since they have all comitted suicide!

[kinghorse]

Did someone say Saddam and Sons?

[GulliverSwift]

They probably boasted about a "scoop" of an ANSWER leader interview. They'd value that more than the "biased" opinion of Tommy Franks.

[Fearless Flyers]

CNN's camera man had to go through a chemical shower and they still didn't report the suspected find of chemical weopons.

The Clueless Communist Network

[VMI70]

I have that exact same question.

[k2blader]

Bump!