Saddam defiant as US launches 'decapitation' strikes on Iraq

US President George W Bush unleashed a war to topple Saddam Hussein today with dawn air strikes on Baghdad but the Iraqi leader responded defiantly, denouncing the "criminal little Bush".

Bush said American and British forces had struck "selected targets of military importance" at the start of a campaign to oust Saddam and disarm Iraq by force.

US officials said the raids were aimed at senior Iraqi leadership targets to "decapitate" the government, but television appearances by Saddam and two senior aides suggested that key figures had survived the first wave of attacks.

A British military spokesman in Qatar said cruise missiles targeted a meeting of five Iraqi officials in Baghdad. He would not say who they were but the Washington Post reported the air raid was launched after the CIA said it had located where Saddam was attending a meeting.

Three hours after the raids began, a grim-faced Saddam appeared on state television in military uniform, black beret and thick-rimmed glasses, urging Iraqis to defend their country.

"The criminal little Bush has committed a crime against humanity," he said, reading from notes. It was not certain the broadcast was live but Saddam mentioned when the attack began.

The raids on Baghdad appeared limited and there was no sign yet of the awesome display of force predicted by military analysts to stun Iraqi troops and sap their will to fight.

"These strikes are being characterised as a decapitation targeted at command and control nodes. If successful, it will radically change the way we do things," US spokesman Marine Colonel Chris Hughes told Reuters in Kuwait City.

Hughes indicated that targets in the south of Iraq had also been hit. He added that he now expected a lull in the attacks.

US officials said F-117A stealth fighters and long-range cruise missiles had attacked Baghdad.

The British spokesman said: "There was a meeting of five Iraqi personnel which they thought they would have a go at and so they decided to strike ...This was a warning shot across the bows and we still want Saddam to surrender."

An Iraqi minister accused Washington of trying to assassinate Saddam but said the president had survived.

"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," Saddam told the Iraqi people.

"They will be defeated," he declared.

A US admiral on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf said four US ships and two submarines had fired cruise missiles in what he called Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Reuters correspondents in Baghdad heard the first explosions about 90 minutes after the expiry of a US ultimatum to Saddam and his two sons to leave Iraq by 4am (1pm NZT).

Jets roared over as Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners opened up and air raid sirens wailed.

Two hours after the raids began, an all-clear siren sounded but 10 minutes later sirens screamed again and new explosions were heard. The all-clear was repeated at 9am.

There was no sign of the start of a ground assault by US and British forces poised in northern Kuwait, but a Kuwaiti defence official said there had been an exchange of fire.

"The Iraqis fired over the border. The coalition replied and put a stop to it," he said.

His account supported reports by Reuters correspondent David Fox, who heard a few dozen artillery explosions near the northern Kuwaiti border and then a score of blasts inside Iraq, apparently from mortar bombs.

The US military appeared to take over the main frequency of Iraqi state radio, saying Saddam's rule was under attack. "This is the day we have been waiting for," the radio said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's main ally on Iraq, was to hold a war cabinet at 8.30am GMT today, a spokeswoman said. She said the full cabinet would meet later in the morning.

France, Russia and Germany have led international opposition to war, saying UN arms inspections should be given more time.

France said today it hoped the Iraq conflict would end swiftly and urged regional countries not to make things worse. China called the war illegal, saying it should stop immediately. Iraq insists it has no banned weapons, saying it co-operated fully with the UN experts, who found little sign of prohibited arms in four months of inspections. They left Iraq this week.

A British military spokesman in Kuwait said no orders had yet been given to launch an expected US-led ground attack. Reuters correspondents in Kurdish-held northern Iraq said frontlines there were quiet.

US officials say upward of 3000 satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles will be unleashed from sea and air on targets vital to Saddam's government.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq