Missiles hit Saddam’s palace in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, March 20 (Reuters) — US cruise missiles slammed into President Saddam Hussein’s main Baghdad palace on Thursday night during an attack that set buildings ablaze in the city and caused massive explosions.

Missiles flew in at low altitude and hit a string of targets across the Iraqi capital in a second wave of missile attacks after a dawn raid, Reuters witnesses said. About 500 km (300 miles) to the southeast, US and British units crossed the border into Iraq from Kuwait at the start of an invasion that Washington says will topple Saddam. The missiles hit Saddam’s main sprawling palace complex on the banks of the Tigris in central Baghdad. Iraqi radio said no one was hurt in a separate attack early on Thursday when missiles hit a family home of Saddam.

Fires broke out around the planning ministry in the centre of Baghdad and other blazes could be seen in the southeast of the city. Fire fighters and ambulances were at the scene. One of the buildings housed an office of Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz. Sirens sounded an all-clear shortly before 2100 GMT. The whole western bank of the Tigris river which cuts through the city was shrouded in smoke. Several government ministries are located on the west bank. To the east of the city there were several explosions in the vicinity of the al Rashid military base. The blasts came shortly after air-raid sirens sounded in Baghdad and anti-aircraft fire lit up the night sky.

Witnesses said that the attack was more intense than previous strikes early on Thursday, which began Washington’s war against Iraq. In the dawn attack, the United States struck with cruise missiles and stealth aircraft in an opportunist hit aimed at killing Saddam and his entourage in Baghdad. The Iraqi government said one civilian died in the first raids and several others were injured. It said that the strikes hit empty buildings and civilian districts. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the dawn missile and bombing attacks in and around Baghdad were just a taste of what would soon be unleashed. Saddam appeared on television three hours after the first strikes on Baghdad, denouncing the “criminal, reckless little Bush.” He urged Iraqis to resist the coming US invasion and promised a historic victory.