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 TIMELINE | WHERE THEY STAND | INSIDE UNSCOM | MAPS FORCES IN THE GULF | VIDEO | BIOWEAPONS EXPLAINER |
Furious missile attack shakes Baghdad as holy month begins
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Blasts continue early Saturday over downtown Baghdad |
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Clinton to decide Saturday if strikes will continue
In this story:
- Hussein: 'We will not let evil triumph'
- Albright: Saddam Hussein could end the bombing
- Iraqis display more damage
- More evacuations from Baghdad
- 'More bombs will make no difference'
- 'Operation Monica'
- Related stories and sites
Web posted at: 10:29 p.m. EST (0329 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A relatively calm night in Baghdad came to an explosive end early Saturday, with an onslaught of U.S. cruise missiles that lit up the skyline with enormous fireballs.
Immediately after the thundering detonations echoed into silence, the lamenting wails of imams called Muslims to morning prayer, heralding the start of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.
Powerful explosions shook the Iraqi capital at about 4 a.m. local time on Saturday (8 p.m. EST Friday), about 2 1/2 hours after an initial, less intense attack. Anti-aircraft batteries roared into action, firing bright red tracers into the night sky.
Correspondent Brent Sadler reported seeing a cruise missile flying through a barrage of anti-aircraft fire, a few hundred feet from his position in central Baghdad.
Bright flashes accompanied the blasts, illuminating the city in bursts of yellow light. Some were so strong, Sadler said they "blew me back from my window."
"I'm now seeing many detonations," Sadler said. "There's one huge fireball nearby and I can see several plumes of smoke from still other detonations."
It was the third night of airstrikes that the Pentagon claimed were seriously damaging Iraqi air defenses, military command posts and missile plants.
U.S. President Bill Clinton and his national security team plan to meet on Saturday to assess the damage of the airstrikes, and to determine if the attack will continue.
In an interview with CNN, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen would not specify what sites were targeted in the Saturday morning strike. But he said he was pleased with the effectiveness of the past two nights of air assaults on Iraq.
"There are always going to be some misses, and that's to be expected. But I am satisfied with the rate to date of the hits that have been achieved ... with minimum amount of damage to surrounding areas or to innocent civilians," he said.
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| U.S. weapons strike an Iraqi target | |
Cohen said earlier Friday he had received no reports of U.S. or British casualties.
More than 200 strike and strike-support sorties were flown Thursday, including the first combat flights of the B-1 bomber, said Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He said the attacks had focused on 75 targets so far, including an oil refinery in Basra.
But Clinton administration officials said they do not plan to strike sites suspected of hiding weapons of mass destruction because bombing them might release deadly poisons and cause civilian casualties.
Instead, U.S. and British forces are targeting facilities believed to be used to develop or support Iraq's weapons programs.
New satellite photographs released by the Pentagon showed that U.S. and British missiles had hit an Iraqi missile research and development center.
U.S. military officials also showed video of the bombing of a "critical (Iraqi) communications facility."
According to Pentagon officials, " ... it could be days, or even weeks" before they can fully assess damage from the airstrikes. More details from Friday's Pentagon briefing.
Hussein: 'We will not let evil triumph'
Before the latest attack began, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made his first televised address to the nation since the bombing campaign began late Wednesday. He urged Iraqis and Arabs to resist the bombings and to hit the "criminals."
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| Hussein: 'Shame will be their fate, those followers of Satan and evil' | |
"We will not compromise or kneel in the face of injustice. We will not let evil triumph over virtue," Hussein said in his taped address carried by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The Iraqi leader paid tribute to the Iraqi armed forces and the air defense troops, who have been firing anti-aircraft guns at the cruise missiles raining on the capital.
"Iraq will be victorious. God damns them. Shame will be their fate, those followers of Satan and evil."
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The address lasted only five minutes, and ended with the words: "Long live great Iraq, the great Arab nation and Palestine, and doomed are our enemies."
Other Iraqi officials also continued their verbal attacks on the United States and chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler.
Butler is "a chief pawn in the hands of the United States, used whenever the United States wants (to) use (him)," said Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz during a news conference.
Aziz called U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "Zionists" and "liars" for not respecting the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
"The timing of (the bombing) coincided with the failure of (Clinton's) visit to Israel and with another incident which I don't want to mention," said Aziz. The latter reference apparently referred to the Congressional debate over whether Clinton should be impeached.
Albright: Saddam Hussein could end the bombing
Earlier Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright emphasized that Hussein still had the power to end the bombing of his nation.
It is still possible for the Iraqi leader to let the U.N. Special Commission weapons inspectors continue their work with unfettered access and hand over the necessary documentation about Iraq's weapons program, Albright told CNN.
"We were always willing, if they cooperated, to go to a comprehensive review" of Iraq's compliance with the U.N. disarmament mandate and the economic sanctions that have crippled the nation since the 1991 Gulf War, Albright said.
"He had a chance to get out of his box and he blew it," she emphasized.
The bombing of Baghdad began a day after Butler submitted a report claiming the Iraqis were again failing to cooperate fully with the weapons inspectors. Military officials have said the bombing campaign could last four days.
"We're not going away," British Defense Secretary George Robertson told the BBC on Friday. "We will go away when he (Hussein) complies with the (U.N.) Security Council resolutions."
Albright said the policy of the United States is to contain Hussein.
"But, we also believe the Iraqi people need a government that is more representative of them," she added, without elaboration.
Iraqis display more damage
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials -- who routinely limit the movements of journalists -- continued to show Western reporters the damage done by the bombings. CNN crews were shown damage done to Baghdad's Natural History Museum.
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| Iraqi officials claim U.S. strikes damaged a museum in Baghdad | |
During the second wave of bombing, one missile appeared to explode near the state Military Industrial Corporation, which is in charge of Iraq's factories.
Smoke could be seen drifting up from the area. Twisted metal and broken, blackened concrete atop the 10-story building marked the point where U.S. or British weapons slammed through its roof and tore through to the ground floor.
The Iraqis also rushed journalists around to hospitals, to emphasize the damage done to the Iraqi people.
Baghdad officials have been less willing to reveal the impact the bombing has had on sites considered sensitive to Iraq's national security.
Any strikes inside the high-walled, sprawling presidential site compounds would be difficult to see from the outside. Iraq last year declared the sites off-limits to weapons inspectors, which led to an escalation of tensions that nearly led to military strikes.
More evacuations from Baghdad
Also Friday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said 35 French nationals had been evacuated to Jordan from Baghdad. Sixty- eight others chose to remain behind, the officials said.
The 35 who left were driven to Jordan in two convoys, a ministry statement said. Most of those who chose to stay in Baghdad were dual nationals, it added.
France announced Thursday that, until further notice, it was advising all French nationals against travel to Iraq or Kuwait. Paris has distanced itself from the raids, while blaming Baghdad for the events that led to them.
Earlier Friday, the United Nations said it had evacuated another 107 staffers from Baghdad, leaving behind a skeleton humanitarian crew of about 25 to 30.
The United Nations evacuated all of its weapons inspectors early Wednesday, before the bombing campaign began.
U.S. officials said no U.S. casualties have been reported since the raids began. Iraqi officials have reported at least 25 deaths and 75 injuries.
There was no news of casualties or damage outside the capital.
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'More bombs will make no difference'
Life in Baghdad continued during the day Friday as it had a day earlier: with the appearance of normalcy.
"We know they are dropping hundreds of cruise missiles here and there, but who cares?" said a food seller.
"We have got nothing to lose this time. More sanctions, more bombs will make no difference," echoed a cinema ticket seller.
Traffic was light, because Friday is the Muslim Sabbath. During morning prayers, Islamic clerics lashed out at the United States and Great Britain, calling the bombing campaign a "War against Islam," CNN's Christiane Amanpour reported.
Muslim clerics declared Ramadan would begin Saturday, following the sighting of the crescent new moon. During the Islamic holy month, Muslims are asked to fast and abstain from sex from dawn to dusk in a symbol of sacrifice.
There had been some speculation that the U.S.-British bombing campaign could end once Ramadan began, because the allies were concerned about offending Islamic nations. But U.S. and British officials emphasized Friday that the bombing would continue until the military goals had been accomplished.
Newspaper headlines in Baghdad urged the Iraqis to rally behind Hussein in a show of support.
"God bless Iraq and Saddam," proclaimed the Babil newspaper's front page, in large red letters.
Below the headline was a drawing of the Iraqi leader dressed in a traditional white Arab robe, hurling a spear at a large, black hissing snake. The picture showed Hussein atop a white horse and took up about a third of the front page.
'Operation Monica'
Al-Thawra, the paper of Hussein's ruling Baath Party, headlined its anti-American editorial "Operation Monica."
The headline played off accusations that U.S. President Bill Clinton had launched the attack to deflect public attention away from impeachment proceedings against him.
Clinton is accused of abusing his office and lying under oath to cover up his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The proceedings began Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives.
An Iraqi Information Ministry official said U.S. aircraft had been dropping leaflets over southern Iraq in an apparent attempt to "arouse the people." The official gave no further details.
The largely Shiite Muslim south rebelled against Hussein after the 1990-91 Gulf War, but Iraqi forces suppressed the uprising.
As for the whereabouts of Hussein, who remained hidden from public view, Iraqi news agencies said he had been meeting with members of his government and touring damage done during two consecutive nights of bombing.
Israel, meanwhile, was preparing to defend itself against possible attacks from Iraq.
Patriot missile batteries were being installed, and Israelis were encouraged to have their gas masks checked and replace outdated models, CNN reported.
During the Gulf War, the Iraqis shelled parts of Israel.
Correspondents Christiane Amanpour, Carl Rochelle, Brent Sadler, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.