Last Update: Satirday, March 22, 2003. 11:24am (AEDT)
Baghdad under attack: 'Shock and awe' campaign begins
A-Day sees Baghdad blitzed The United States has unleashed a massive aerial bombardment on Baghdad at the start of what American officials say is the beginning of the air campaign.
The Iraqi capital has endured a third night of bombings which have sent huge columns of smoke into the night sky.
There have also been a string of explosions in two towns in northern Iraq.
Coalition ground forces are now deep into southern Iraq closing in on the key city of Basra.
Huge plumes of smoke rose from Baghdad as bombs and missiles slammed into one of Saddam's palaces and other targets. Repeated explosions reddened the night sky and shook the ground in by far the biggest raid of the war.
A Reuters journalist saw fires raging in Saddam's palace and other buildings.
Australian journalist Paul McGeough, from the Sydney Morning Herald, is in a hotel in the capital Baghdad and has told Channel Nine about the bombing blitz.
"There were merciless explosions, massive fireballs, huge plumes of smoke blacking out whole sections of the skyline," he said.
"It's a very still and beautiful spring night in Baghdad tonight so the smoke is hanging rather than being blown away.
"A lot of buildings are on fire, we are in the Palestine Hotel, we are not able to go out and see what has happened."
A US official said it was the start of a major air war dubbed by the Pentagon "shock and awe". A fleet of giant B-52 bombers had earlier taken off from an airfield in southern England.
Several big explosions were also heard around the city of Kirkuk in the north and anti-aircraft guns blasted the skies over Mosul.
Iraq said Saddam had survived a US attempt to target him directly on Thursday. Rumours persisted that the Iraqi leader was dead - British and US officials said they did not know.
Coalition leaders said the campaign to oust Saddam is going according to plan but warned the real battle still lies ahead.
Saddam has withdrawn his best trained and most loyal forces to Baghdad, where he may be planning to force invaders into dangerous and punishing street fighting in hopes of inflicting heavy casualties.
"The important thing is to get to Baghdad to prevent Saddam's ability to effect any form of command, particularly over weapons of mass destruction," said Major-General Albert Whitely, deputy commander of the US-British land forces.
The Pentagon says it is seeing evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime is starting to lose control of Iraq.Northern advance
Meanwhile, US and British forces are continuing their advance rapidly north from Kuwait.
Military sources in northern Kuwait have told the ABC that 1,200 Iraqi soldiers have now surrendered to US and British forces, with 700 more expected to surrender soon.
The Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr has been captured, a key strategic facility expected to relieve US and British reliance on Kuwait's ports.
Further north, the US third infantry division has advanced as far as the city of Nasiria on the Eurphates River, with fighting erupting on the outskirts of the city.
Coalition forces have now advanced about 180 kilometres into southern Iraq.
Commander surrenders
The commander of Iraq's regular 51st Division has surrendered to American Marines advancing through the desert toward Baghdad in southern Iraq, US defence officials said.
It was the first time that the commander of an Iraqi division has surrendered to US and British forces, who launched a blitzkrieg sweep northward from Kuwait on Thursday.
The defence officials, who asked not to be identified, did not provide details but told Reuters that both the commander and vice-commander of the division had surrendered.
The number of troops in the division was not known, but the unit had been peppered in recent weeks with tens of thousands of air-dropped leaflets calling on the Iraqi military to give up.
Kuwait
Iraq has fired its 12th missile in two days at Kuwait, but it crossed the emirate without landing, an interior ministry official said.
General Ahmad al-Rujaib said on Kuwait Television that a missile was detected entering Kuwaiti air space and was monitored until it crossed over the country.
General Rujaib said the missile did not strike in Kuwaiti territory.
Before the announcement, sirens sounded across Kuwait for the third time Friday. The all-clear was given some 10 minutes later.
Earlier in the day, Kuwaiti defence forces fired Patriot missiles to intercept an incoming Iraqi missile targeted at the emirate's Ali al-Salem air base in north-western Kuwait, the defence ministry's Colonel Yussif al-Mulla said.
"A total of three Patriots were fired by Kuwaiti air defence batteries to intercept and destroy the incoming Iraqi missile" aimed at the base, Colonel Mulla said.
Three explosions were heard after warning sirens sounded during that attack around 9:00am AEDT.
Colonel Mulla said the explosions were the sound of the three Patriots destroying the Iraqi missile.
Ten Iraqi missiles had already landed on the emirate in the first 24 hours of the US-led war launched on Thursday to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, causing no damage or casualties.
Iraqi resistance
Resistance from Iraqi troops has halted US forces advancing through southern Iraq near Nasiriya, a main crossing point over the Euphrates River.
Nasiriya is about 375 kilometres south-east of the capital Baghdad.
Crossing the Euphrates is the next big challenge for coalition troops in their drive towards the Iraqi capital, British Major-General Albert Whitely said.
Other elements of the US 3rd Infantry Division earlier advanced at least 150 kilometres into Iraq from Kuwait, speeding north towards Baghdad.
Reuters correspondent Andrew Gray, travelling with elements of the US 3rd Infantry Division, said officers told him there was fighting near Nasiriya and they expected soon "to go and join the battle".
Gray said he saw US troops return fire with two rockets.320 missiles
United States forces have fired about 320 missiles at Baghdad and surrounding areas overnight, a senior US naval commander said.
"Approximately 320 missiles have been fired at targets in and around Baghdad," Rear Admiral Matthew Moffit said aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, reporting the heaviest air strikes of the two-day-old US-led campaign to oust Saddam Hussein.
At the same time, a large number of carrier-based F/A-18 Hornet attack fighters and F-14 Tomcat fighters took off, loaded with bombs to provide close air support for Marine and Army troops near the south-eastern port of Basra, the carrier's air wing commander said.
Rear Admiral Moffit said the missiles and bombs had been expected to hit their targets virtually simultaneously.
"The intention is to convince the regime that it's time to leave, and if they don't then we will try to take them out by force," he added.
Television viewers around the world were able to view live coverage of a ferocious and terrifying aerial assault on the Iraqi capital.
Huge explosions rocked the ancient city of five million people, sending balls of flames and thick clouds of smoke into the sky and shaking walls and windows.
Defiant in the face of the onslaught, Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed vowed that no force would break Iraq, which came under attack after Saddam spurned a US ultimatum to go into exile.
"No force in the world will conquer us because we are defending our country, our principles and our religion. We are, no doubt, the victors," Mr Ahmed said, his voice sporadically drowned out by violent explosions.
