Iraq barracks shattered by missiles

WASHINGTON - Brandishing before-and-after photographs of shattered Republican Guard and other buildings in Baghdad, Pentagon leaders said yesterday that two days of air strikes had severely damaged Iraqi targets.

As cruise missiles fired by air force B-52 bombers and bombs from US Navy and British jets slammed Iraq in a second round of raids, Defence Secretary William Cohen said that damage assessment from an earlier first round of ship-fired cruise missiles showed good results.

Cohen and Army General Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that among targets hit were barracks of President Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guards, anti-aircraft facilities, airfields and military command and control centres.

"There have been no American casualties and we are achieving good coverage of our targets," Cohen said.

"Our targets include Iraq's air defence system, its command and control system, airfields and other military infrastructure and facilities."

Shelton, announcing that more than 50 targets were attacked by well over 200 Navy tomahawks in the initial round of raids, produced enlarged photographs of Iraq's military intelligence headquarters and a headquarters and Republican Guard barracks in Baghdad.

The aerial pictures showed intact buildings before the raids and rubble afterwards.

"This photo up here, where you don't see anything but rubble, is what formerly was this building," Shelton said, nodding at intelligence headquarters.

He did the same with Abu Ghreib Republican Guard headquarters and five barracks buildings.

"You will see [that] out of the five barracks, four of the five were destroyed."

The Republican Guard is considered the backbone of Saddam's base of military power and Shelton said those troops helped him maintain control of his programme to develop weapons of mass destruction.

"We have a considerable amount of data coming back in. Much of it is as successful or more successful than this was - some of it not quite as successful," said the general.

At least 25 people have died and 75 others were wounded in Baghdad alone during the missle strikes, according to Iraqi Health Minister Umeed Madhat Mubarak.

He said hospitals in the sanctions-hit city were suffering from severe shortages of medical supplies and would hardly be able to cope with a growing number of casualties.

Khalid al-Ubaidi, head of Saddam Medical City - the biggest hospital in Iraq - said three patients had died from heart attack because of the shocks of the explosions.

Ubaidi said he had instructed his patients to stay in the basement of the hospital because of the damage caused to the building and the fear of more strikes.

Reporters were taken around the basement where about 120 patients were lying on the ground without beds. One of the injured men had his leg cut off after being hit by a bomb shell.

Wasam Ahmed Khudeir told reporters the blast took place as he was walking in the street. "I found myself in this hospital with one of my legs amputated," he said.

Mubarak said he was one of around 75 people wounded in the Iraqi capital.

"About 75 [were] wounded from yesterday and today in Baghdad," Mubarak said.

He said two hospitals in Baghdad were damaged as a result of massive bombings on Thursday night. Physicians said Saddam Medical city sustained damage and most of the equipment had been destroyed.

Reporters saw smashed windows, broken elevators and equipment in the hospital and water flowing on the floors.

"There is another maternity hospital which was damaged tonight," Mubarak said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said US cruise missiles had hit civilian areas.

"They attacked a district of Baghdad which is heavily populated with civilians."

According to Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh the strikes destroyed 2600 tonnes of rice in a store in President Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 200km north of Baghdad.

"The quantity of rice which has been damaged is enough to cover rations of the people in the city for a month."

Addressing a news conference in Baghdad, Sahaf said cruise missiles had hit the two buildings and several factories. However he gave no details of the extent of damage.

Sahaf said that both buildings had been inspected more than once by UN weapons inspectors.

He also listed a number of Government industrial sites where he said UN weapons inspectors had installed surveillance cameras.- REUTERS

BIRDS OF PREY: Aircraft on the USS Enterprise ready to join the second wave of attacks against Iraq with a series of night sorties.