U.S. and coalition forces launched missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq as Thursday morning dawned in Baghdad, including a "decapitation attack" aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other top members of the country's leadership.
President Bush announced the start of the military campaign against Iraq shortly afterward in a televised address from the White House.
"American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger," Bush said. (Full story)
Administration sources said the decision to strike came after a nearly four-hour meeting in the Oval Office in which CIA Director George Tenet and Pentagon officials told Bush they could lose the "target of opportunity" if they didn't act quickly; Bush then gave the green light.
Hours later, a defiant Saddam wearing a military uniform appeared on Iraqi television to denounce the U.S.-led military campaign as "criminal" and to say his countrymen would be victorious.
"We pledge that we will confront the invaders," he said, adding Iraqi resistance would cause the coalition to "lose any hope in accomplishing what they were driven to by the criminal Zionists and others with their agendas."
In his taped speech, Saddam gave Thursday's date, March 20, as a sign it was recorded after the coalition attack. He ended his message by saying, "Long live jihad and long live Palestine." (Full story)
In New York, Iraq Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Aldouri said, "It seems that the war of aggression against my country has started."
He called the the military action "a violation of international law" and said he would ask the United Nations and the Security Council Thursday to hold allied forces accountable for the attacks on Iraq.
More than 40 satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from U.S. warships in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, military officials said. F117 stealth fighters, which carry two 2,000-pound bombs apiece, also were involved in the strikes, though apparently on a target other than Saddam.
Air raid sirens were heard in Baghdad at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday (9:30 p.m. Wednesday ET) about 90 minutes after the U.S. deadline for Saddam to step down or face a U.S.-led military attack.
In his four-minute announcement from the Oval Office, Bush said the military campaign, supported by 35 nations, would make efforts to spare Iraqi civilians. But he made it clear the U.S. military planned to use its full might in the war.
"This will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory," he said.
The president's address came at 10:15 p.m., about two hours and 15 minutes after the expiration of the deadline. (Transcript)
The United States and Britain have massed nearly 300,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region.
