The National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post) March 20, 2003
Attack begun at sunrise; Iraqi leaders targeted
'We will prevail': Bush: 'Decapitation strike' aims at suspected site of Iraqi brass's meeting
By Chris Wattie
The United States began its attack on Iraq early today with an air strike on Baghdad, less than two hours after its 48-hour deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave the country passed.
Shortly after cruise missiles and bombs exploded on the outskirts of Baghdad, George W. Bush, the U.S. President, appeared on television to say the first stage of the military operation against Iraq had begun.
"At this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of a military operation to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger," Mr. Bush said.
"On my orders coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign."
The attack on Baghdad came as more than 150,000 U.S. and British soldiers massed on Saddam's borders and special forces began raids inside Iraq, and was announced by a series of explosions, anti-aircraft fire and the wail of air-raid sirens.
The United States launched the strike against what Pentagon sources called a "target of opportunity" after receiving indications that Iraqi leaders -- possibly including Saddam -- were in the area, said a senior government official.
The U.S. President ordered the attack, believed to be a meeting of senior Iraqi leaders, during a three-hour meeting with his senior military and national security advisors.
One defence source said that the dawn attack was "a decapitation strike" by cruise missiles and F-117 stealth fighters.
CBS News reported that the cruise missiles hit the target first and the F-117s followed up with so-called "bunker-buster" 1,000-kilogram bombs that are designed to penetrate deeply into buried targets.
A handful of explosions were heard from the southern suburbs of Baghdad at dawn as jets roared overhead, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries opened up and air raid sirens sounded. Sporadic gunfire continued for several minutes after the attack.
In his statement, Mr. Bush warned that the invasion of Iraq will be "longer and more difficult than some predict."
"I assure you that this shall not be a campaign of half measures and we shall accept no outcome but victory," he said. "We will prevail."
While allied soldiers assumed their forward battle positions late yesterday, the armoured and mechanized divisions forming up on Iraq's southern border had not yet been ordered to move forward. Some fighting began even before the deadline ran out, as British and American special forces preparing the way for the vanguard of their armies clashed with Iraqi defenders.
A firefight was reported shortly after darkness fell over Iraq, near the main port of Umm Qasr in the southern half of the country. The fighting, near the city of Basra, involved the elite troops of Britain's Special Boat Service and U.S. Marines, according to a British newspaper.
Defence sources told the National Post that hundreds of CIA, British and American commandos spread out across Iraq in the hours before the invasion, locating targets for airstrikes and scouting out enemy positions. As well, Fighter bombers struck 10 Iraqi artillery positions and a missile installation before the deadline passed yesterday, a precursor to the thousands of precision bombs and missiles one air force strategist said the U.S. and its British allies will soon unleashing on Iraq.
Colonel Gary Crowder, chief of strategy for the Air Force's Air Combat Command, said that when the coalition's 1,000 fighters and bombers begin their air attacks in earnest, it could shock the Iraqi regime into submission.
"I do not think our potential adversary has any idea what's coming," he said.
"The effect that we are trying to create is to make it so apparent and so overwhelming at the very outset of potential military operations that the adversary quickly realizes that there is no real alternative here than to fight and die or to give up."
Col. Chowder said that Iraqi air defences are only a shell of what they were in 1991 and the widespread use of precision weapons, coupled with more stealth fighters and bombers, means the US air campaign will be able to achieve its objectives quickly.
As the deadline drew near last night, Iraqi security forces and armed members of Saddam's Baath party deployed throughout Baghdad and on the city's southern approaches.
The city of five million resembled a ghost town as darkness fell, with almost every store shut and panicked residents streaming out to the countryside to escape the expected bombing.
Baghdad residents spent the last hours before the attack doing last-minute shopping at the food stores that remained open, seemingly resigned that war would come within hours.
"We cry for Baghdad," said civil servant Abdel-Jabar al-Tamimi. "Tonight, we shall be awake waiting for the bombs to fall, but we will also remember that God is stronger than oppression. Wars come and go, but Baghdad will remain."
The exodus of diplomats continued, with Iran calling its diplomats home and those from Poland, Greece and France heading for neighbouring Jordan.
Along the road from Baghdad to Jordan, gas stations were crowded but traffic was light.
Some gas stations along the sand-swept route had emptied their tanks trying to match the demand, with the cost of a litre of gas soaring to almost $1.50, compared with the usual 3 cents.
No Iraqi troops or armour were in evidence around the capital, where Saddam is widely expected to make his final stand. But uniformed Baath loyalists and security forces stood guard behind hundreds of sandbagged strongpoints or in trenches built over the past two weeks. Most were armed with Kalashnikovs, but some had rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine-guns. On Baghdad's southern fringes, several anti-aircraft guns could be seen. Even traffic policemen wore helmets and carried assault rifles on Wednesday.
Iraqi officials remained defiant up to the last minute yesterday, as Tariq Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister, told a Baghdad news conference: "We are ready to fight, prepared to face the aggressors and are certain of victory."
"It is not going to be a short war, unless he [Mr. Bush] decides to end his aggression. It is not going to be a picnic for him."
"American soldiers are nothing but mercenaries and they will be defeated."
However, even before the allied armies reached their jumping-off points along the border, 17 Iraqi border guards crossed into Kuwait to surrender to U.S. troops.
Captain Darrin Theriault, of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said the Iraqis laid their arms down in front of the first troops they could find and were handed over to Kuwaiti police. "We anticipate more [surrenders] as this continues to develop," he said.
One report suggested that up to 15% of Iraqi troops in front-line divisions covering the northern approaches to Baghdad have deserted over the past month and in the south, Kuwaiti border guards were turning back Iraqi soldiers wanting to surrender, telling them that they had to wait until the attack began.
"We are looking at wholesale desertions in some areas," said an intelligence officer. "In the southern area, where there are six Iraqi divisions, 50% of their officers are planning to surrender once the campaign opens."
U.S. psychological operation units have been dropping millions of leaflets on Iraqi units in the past few days and even among the elite Republican Guard many have deserted.
In the de-militarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait early yesterday, thousands of soldiers and vehicles began lining up for the first moves in the complex job of getting more than 100,000 troops into position for an invasion.
The first line of tanks made its way to their jumping-off point soon after dawn, helmeted figures poking out of turrets to give the thumbs-up to watching soldiers as the massed might of the American army began its slow move to the border in a wind-whipped sandstorm.
In camps across northern Kuwait, soldiers packed tents into kit bags and lit fires to burn their garbage and joined the columns of troops, tanks and bulldozers moving in seemingly endless convoys.
The crews of Abrams tanks stencilled final messages to Saddam Hussein on their vehicles. Infantrymen crowded into Bradley carriers and medic stations were packed up and transferred to the back of trucks. When the "chow trucks" arrived around dusk for the last cooked meal the assembled men were expected to have before the invasion the wind had died away and the sun, which had been hidden for most of the day, glowed red on the horizon.
The paratroopers of of the 101st Airborne Division prepared for battle yesterday by checking weapons and equipment and packing rucksacks in their camp about 40 kilometres from the Kuwait-Iraq border.
Troops in full battle gear formed lines to phone home, others prayed at a church tent and many were getting their heads shaved -- a tradition before combat in the unit nicknamed "The Screaming Eagles."
The 101st will be at the forefront of the attack, charging ahead of armour and mechanized infantry in helicopters for what the military calls "deep insertion:" landing and taking advanced fire bases deep behind enemy lines.
Soldiers of the 3,000-strong 1st Brigade could be in their Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters within an hour of getting orders to move, said unit spokesman Captain Townley Hedrick, 33. Their artillery moves with them, slung under the choppers.
First Sergeant Jeffrey Smith, sitting in his tent, said he was eager to get into action.
"Its about time, This desert doesn't do anything for your complexion," joked the 39-year-old from West Virginia. "I'm expecting a little hard fighting."
He acknowledged that his men were a little nervous, but said he had offered them some advice: "How do you relieve stress? A good firefight."
THE ALLIED FORCES:
More than 300,000 U.S. and British troops have taken up positions in the Middle East, as part of the attack on Iraq. A look at where those forces are deployed.
TURKEY
Incirlik air base - 7,000 personnel
United States: Some 50-plus F-15 and F-16 strike jets, including E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)
United Kingdom: 10 Royal Air Force Tornado GR-1 and Jaguar attack aircraft
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
United States: USS Harry S. Truman and USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Battle Groups each with 75 aircraft, seven cruisers, destroyers and submarines with Tomahawk cruise missiles, plus five-ship squadron carrying armour and supplies
JORDAN
UK: Six Tornados, four Jaguars and four Harrier jump jets
RED SEA
United States: Task Force led by USS Belleau Wood. 3 amphibious assault ships,1,500 marines, 23 helicopters, 6 Harriers
DJIBOUTI
About 3,000 U.S. special forces, marines and air force personnel
PERSIAN GULF
United States: Carrier Battle Groups USS Constellation, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Kitty Hawk, plus USNS Comfort - giant 1,000-bed hospital ship. USS Nimitz en route. 225,000 U.S. and 45,000 British personnel, 970-plus U.S. aircraft, 126 British aircraft and 1,000 Tomahawks now in region.
United Kingdom: Task force of 16 ships, with 4,000 sailors and 4,000 Royal Marines, led by aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and helicopter assault ship HMS Ocean. Both equipped with troop-carrying helicopters instead of fixed-wing jets.
DIEGO GARCIA
British island territory in Indian Ocean, 5,350 km from Baghdad
United States: Six B-2 Stealth bombers plus fleet of B-52s armed with satellite-laser-guided "smart" bombs
BAHRAIN
Juffair Navy Base: HQ of U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet
KUWAIT
United States: 100,000 troops deployed. Ali Salem and Ahmed Al Jaber air bases: 60 aircraft including F-117 Stealth bombers, A-10 tank-busters, Apache and Blackhawk helicopters.
Camp Doha: 640 M1 Abrams tanks, 400 Bradley fighting vehicles. 300 aircraft inc. Harriers and 144 Apache helicopters. Patriot missile defence systems
United Kingdom: 26,000 combat troops led by 1st Armoured Division. Includes "Desert Rats" - 7th Armoured Brigade with 120 Challenger-2 tanks and 150 Warrior fighting vehicles - 8,000 troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade and 3 Commando Brigade
Australia: 2,000-plus troops including 150 special forces
UAE: U-2 spyplanes
OMAN
8 U.S. B-1B bombers, 2 RAF Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft
SAUDI ARABIA
6,600 mainly U.S. air force personnel
QATAR - CENTCOM
General Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command, controls mobile air-war planning HQ at Al Udeid air base. CENTCOM is staffed by 1,000 U.S. communications troops and several hundred British counterparts. 3,500 combat troops
Source: U.S. Navy. Globalsecurity.org, Graphic News, National Post
GRAPHIC: Color Photo: Patrick Baz, Agence France-Presse; An explosion is seen in Baghdad this morning as the United States launches its war on Iraq with an air strike on the capital. The White House said the strike was intended to decapitate the Iraqi leadership.; List: U.S. Navy. Globalsecurity.org, Graphic News, National Post; THE ALLIED FORCES: More than 300,000 U.S. and British troops have taken up positions in the Middle East, as part of the attack on Iraq. A look at where those forces are deployed.: (Online)
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