Missiles fired at US base in Kuwait desert

Iraq struck back within hours of a United States attack on Baghdad, forcing US and British military units in the northern Kuwaiti desert to don chemical protection suits and gas masks.

At least one Iraqi missile, apparently targeted at an American camp at Doha, north of Kuwait City, was reportedly a banned Scud rocket. Iraq has denied having any Scuds.

Kuwaiti officials said the missiles were not carrying chemical or biological materials.

The retaliation came hours after President George W. Bush made a last-minute change to US war plans as the deadline he set for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to stand down drew close.

The US received intelligence reports that Saddam might be meeting his top advisers in a house on the southern outskirts of Baghdad and would be there for some hours.

At a hastily called war council in the Oval Office, CIA director George Tenet told President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that the opportunity was too good to miss.

Instead of starting the war with the "shock and awe" bombardment Pentagon officials had planned, Mr Bush decided on an opening salvo he hoped would "decapitate" the Iraqi military.

At 6.30pm (11.30am NZT) he gave the go-ahead for American forces gathering in the Gulf to strike.

If it succeeded, said a senior Administration official, the entire Iraqi military - not just its ill-equipped and demoralised conscript Army - might fold without a fight.

"It was a fairly singular strike," said a Government official. "If you're going to take a shot like this, you're going to take a shot at the top guy."

Operation Iraqi Freedom had begun.

Last night, Iraqi authorities said the US assault hit empty media and customs buildings and civilian suburbs, killing one person.

But its prime target, Saddam Hussein, certainly survived, appearing hours later on Iraqi television.

The attack began 90 minutes after President Bush's ultimatum to Hussein to leave Iraq ran out.

Speaking on American television, President Bush said: "On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war".

He called the salvos "opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign".

But he warned that despite the American and British forces' overwhelming superiority of numbers and technology in the Gulf, the days ahead "could be longer and more difficult than some predict".

The strike against Saddam Hussein came from more than 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles, flying at just under the speed of sound to deliver 450kg warheads on to a pre-programmed target.

They were fired from four cruisers and destroyers and two submarines in the Red Sea and the Gulf.

Two bat-like F-117A stealth fighters carried two one-tonne satellite-guided bombs towards Baghdad.

As accompanying fighter jets were launched from the USS Constellation, dozens of sailors and Marines flocked to the observation deck to video or photograph history unfolding.

Dawn broke over Baghdad (at 2.32pm NZT) with the cry of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer and yellow tracer fire from anti-aircraft guns arcing into the sky at the unseen stealth bombers.

Citizens turning on their radios found Iraqi radio airwaves jammed.

Instead, there was a message from America: "This is the day you have been waiting for."

In a psychological retort, Iraqi satellite television played its own message to US troops.

"It's an inferno that awaits them. Let them try their faltering luck and they shall meet what awaits them."

Citizens, peace activists and human shields woke to empty streets and the sounds of distant bombing.

Briton Jo Wilding, who is in Iraq observing human rights, said from a Baghdad hotel: "We've just been standing on the balcony, and it's kind of like a real low rumbling, thundering sound.

"You can just sort of see flashes in the sky. "

Two hours after the raids began, an all-clear sounded in Baghdad.

But 10 minutes later sirens sounded again and new explosions were heard.

For several tantalising hours, Iraq's leaders were silent, raising the possibility the opening salvo had been successful. Then came news that Saddam Hussein would address his people on television.

"The criminal little Bush has committed a crime against humanity," said a grim-faced Hussein, wearing military uniform and a black beret.

He read from a prepared text, wearing heavy black-framed spectacles, something he rarely does in public. It was not possible to be certain the broadcast was live, but it appeared to be fresh.

It was also unclear where the broadcast was made as intelligence officials say tracking Saddam is difficult, partly because he employs body doubles and rarely sleeps in the same place two nights in a row.

He has also built a complex of bunkers at a cost of more than $173 million that can accommodate hundreds of people, and store supplies of food, water and military equipment such as tanks.

In the broadcast a defiant Saddam said:"We pledge to you in our name and in the name of our leadership and in the name of the Iraqi people and its heroic Army, in the name of Iraq, its civilisation and history, that we will fight the invaders."



Less than seven hours after Baghdad was hit, US and Kuwaiti officials said Iraq had fired several missiles. At least one was brought down by a US Patriot missile defence battery.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf denied that Iraq had Scud missiles.

"I heard reports that we fired Scud missiles on Kuwait. I would like to tell you that we don't have Scud missiles, and why they were fired, I don't know," Sahaf said.



Retired Admiral Leighton Smith, former commander of US naval forces in Europe, said the opening salvo was a brilliantly-taken opportunity but American forces could return to the "shock and awe approach".

The idea of this is that a fragile military such as Saddam Hussein's can be so overwhelmed at the outset of war - blinded by the loss of computers and radar, deafened by the loss of all communications, worn down by relentless, escalating bomb and missile strikes - that it loses even the ability to think clearly and submits to the inevitability of defeat.

News that the attack had finally started spread rapidly among the 350,000 US and British troops massed in northern Kuwait awaiting orders to begin the march on Baghdad.

"The adrenaline rush is on. We're so pumped up we just want to go, go, go and get it done," said Private Matthew Dummais.

US infantry units moved closer to the Iraqi border, driving through the moonlit night to their positions, awaiting the signal to attack.

On hearing that Iraq's President may have been the target of the first air raid on Baghdad, a couple of soldiers joked that they wanted him to survive long enough for them to be part of the offensive aimed at toppling him.

"Hang on in there, Saddam," one said, laughing.

- AGENCIES

Herald Feature: Iraq