US hits Baghdad again, captures Iraqi port town

7.30am - by SAMIA NAKHOUL

BAGHDAD - The United States attacked key targets in Baghdad with cruise missiles today, setting government buildings on fire in a ferocious assault to destroy the rule of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The bombardment began just after 8pm local time (5am today NZT).

Witnesses in the Iraqi capital reported several explosions near government buildings as cruise missiles swooped down, shaking the city with massive explosions. There was relatively little Iraqi anti-aircraft fire.

Reuters reporter Nadim Ladki said missiles flew in at a very low altitude and hit several targets. He could see buildings ablaze in the southeast of the city and around the planning ministry in the centre of Baghdad.

Fire fighters and ambulances were driving to the scene but US television networks showed the flames roaring out of control and smoke rising high into the night sky.

It was the second round of US attacks after Saddam yesterday defied a US ultimatum to leave the country. The previous raid, at dawn on Thursday (3pm NZT) targeted the Iraqi president himself and his senior leadership but the results were not clear.

A British military source said the main offensive was about to begin. US officials had vowed a massive assault against Iraqi leaders and soldiers to the point that they would be too dazed and demoralised to resist. That barrage had yet to unfold in its full ferocity.

Units of the US Marine First Expeditionary Force crossed from Kuwait into southern Iraq to begin securing positions for a thrust northward by US and British troops massed in Kuwait near the border, US officials said on Thursday.

The Kuwaiti news agency said US-led troops had captured the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr.

The town is the only major sea port for goods to enter Iraq. It is some 50km south of the key city of Basra, which US military sources say will be a first target for invading forces.

A number of Iraqi troops surrendered to US Marines who had just crossed into Iraq from Kuwait, a CBS radio correspondent said today.

The correspondent, who was travelling with the Marines, said the Iraqi troops had been laying a mine field when they were intercepted by the US forces. The network did not say how many Iraqi troops had surrendered.

An ABC correspondent with the US Marines in southern Iraq also said an unspecified number of Iraqis had surrendered to Marines there.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the initial missile and bombing attacks in and around Baghdad were just a first taste of what would soon be unleashed.

"What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict. It will be of a force and scope and scale that has been beyond what has been seen before," he said.

As night fell in Baghdad, witnesses told Reuters that US forces had launched a new artillery attack near the Iraq-Kuwait border, and large explosions were reported in the direction of the Iraqi city of Basra.

"There has been another intense barrage," said Reuters correspondent David Fox from near the border. "The first lot of big explosions came from the direction of Basra and then there were more to west of that."

Other reporters saw US missiles strike areas in southern Iraq as well as helicopter gunships firing at ground targets. About 280,000 US and British troops are in the Gulf region, many of them in Kuwait, poised to invade Iraq.

Iraq responded to the first US attack with several missile strikes on northern Kuwait. All missed their targets or were intercepted by US missiles. The Iraqis also said they shot down a US helicopter but there was no confirmation.

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.

Rumsfeld said there was some debate as to whether the man that appeared was really Saddam or one of his doubles, but some viewers were convinced the voice was authentic.

Rumsfeld urged Iraqi citizens to stay in their homes and told Iraqi troops to disobey any orders to use chemical weapons or destroy oil wells. He said those who surrendered would have a place in a future free Iraq but those who fought would share Saddam's fate.

Rumsfeld also said Iraq may have set fire to three or four oil wells in the south of the country. Kuwait television reported that several oil wells near Basra had been set alight by Iraqi troops. Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed denied the reports.

The United States launched the pre-emptive war to remove Saddam from power, saying he continued to develop weapons of mass destruction that had to be neutralised before they could be used. Iraq denies having such weapons.

Herald Feature: Iraq