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wrbones
04-08-03, 02:13 AM
U.S. Airstrike Targets Saddam







Tuesday, April 08, 2003

An American bomber struck a residential complex in Baghdad Monday after the CIA indicated that Saddam Hussein, his sons and other top Iraqi leaders might be meeting there, U.S. officials told Fox News.





There was no immediate word on who might have been killed, but U.S. officials said they had evidence the target had been destroyed. "There is a big hole where that target used to be," one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The attack was carried out by one Air Force B-1 bomber that dropped four 2,000-pound, GBU-24 "bunker-buster" bombs on the target site, military officials said.

The strike came at 3 p.m. Baghdad time in the upscale Mansour neighborhood, senior Central Command officials said.

U.S. officials told Fox News the first bombs were dropped on the site within an hour after Central Command received the first "solid" piece of intelligence.

Saddam was believed to be in a structure attached to a restaurant or dining area, along with at least his son Udai and two to three dozen Baath party leaders, officials told Fox News. Those present at the meeting were discussing how to get out of Baghdad, the officials said.

The target location, which officials believed had a bunker and underground tunnels, was a large crater after the strike. "Whoever was in there is dead," an official told Fox News.

Marine Maj. Brad Bartelt, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar, publicly confirmed that a "leadership target was hit very hard," but would not comment on casualties or say how long it would take to determine the damage. Battle assessment typically involves ground reconnaissance or satellite imagery, though Bartelt would not say what method was being used.

Still, a Pentagon spokesperson told Fox News verification of whether Saddam and his sons were killed in the bombing would take three days.

"There's a strong chance" they were killed, officials said, but U.S. military and Special Operations forces have been targeting Saddam since the first day of the war and narrowly missed him a number of times.

Those close to Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed with security that very few people would know about his movements. He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.

An exiled dissident told The Associated Press that only two people are kept posted about Saddam's whereabouts -- his son Qusai, who commands the Republican Guard and heads the president's security, and his private secretary, Abed Hameed Hmoud, a member of Saddam's Tikriti clan. Even Saddam's eldest son Odai is thought to be out of the loop because he is considered to have a reckless nature.

Rescue workers looking in the rubble for victims said two bodies had been recovered and the death toll could be as high as 14. They did not release any names.

The strike came on a day when U.S. forces also occupied two of Saddam's palaces southwest of the target zone and knocked down a statue of the Iraqi leader as they tried to wrest control of Baghdad from his regime.

After daybreak Tuesday, Baghdad was under constant bombardment from the air. Planes, anti-aircraft and machine-gun fire and loud explosions could be heard. Abu Dhabi television shows flames inside the Ministry of Planning, black smoke pouring out

The Arab TV network Al-Jazeera reported that its office on the banks of the Euphrates River was hit by a bomb from a U.S. plane. It said a cameraman was wounded and another crew member was missing. A cameraman was seen on the screen with his chest covered in blood.

Coalition strikes have aimed at top Iraqi leaders from the very start of the war.

On March 19, the opening night of the war, President Bush authorized a strike on a suburban Baghdad compound where Saddam and his sons were thought to be staying. But U.S. intelligence officials suspect he survived.

Earlier Monday, U.S. and British officials said they believed Saddam's top commander in southern Iraq, his first cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, had been killed in a U.S. airstrike at a house in Basra. Al-Majid, considered one of the most brutal and loyal members of Saddam's inner circle, was known as "Chemical Ali" for his role a 1988 poison gas attack that killed tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds.

A video clip of the U.S. attack on the Basra house was shown at the Pentagon on Monday.

"We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end. To Iraqis who have suffered at his hand, particularly in the last few weeks in that southern part of the country, he will never again terrorize you or your families," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.

Fox News' Rita Cosby, Bret Baier, Jim Angle and the Associated Press contributed to this report.










Ain't that the ****s? Can't even have a drink with yer homeboys w/o gettin' bombed.....