US and British units crossing the Kuwaiti border into southern Iraq tonight seized the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr, the official Kuwaiti News Agency reported.
The town, which is the only major sea port for goods to enter Iraq, lies some 30 miles south of the key city of Basra.
The coalition troops were making what US officials described as a preparatory move ahead of a northward thrust by US and British troops massed near the border in Kuwait.
A CBS journalist reported that a number of Iraqi troops surrendered to US marines who had just crossed into Iraq from Kuwait. The correspondent said that the Iraqi troops had been laying a mine field when they were intercepted by the soldiers. The network did not say how many Iraqi troops had surrendered.
Earlier tonight, the ground war was opened with an assault by the US 3rd Infantry Division on Iraqi troops in the south-east of the country. The troops opened fire using Paladin self-propelled howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems.
A UK military source confirmed that British forces had participated in the ground attack on Iraq. Reuters quoted the source as confirming: “British forces are engaged … The whole thing is kicking off tonight.”
Fox News reported that the forces struck with 2,000lb bombs and missiles and fired at ground targets from helicopter gunships, while marines launched artillery into the same areas. Iraqis returned some fire, but missed the soldiers, who were constantly changing position in the desert, the reporter added.
The ground war was launched around an hour after the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, promised in Washington that “the days of the Saddam Hussein regime are numbered.”
Rumsfeld said that the US had hit a senior Iraqi leadership position in its initial strikes on Baghdad. He offered no details, saying a damage assessment was pending.
The assault “was the first”, he said. “It likely will not be the last.”
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a massive assault on Iraq could begin later tonight. An American-led invasion force of 250 000 troops is poised to strike on orders from the US president, George Bush.
Air strikes target Baghdad palace
Iraq’s planning department appeared to have been heavily hit by US bombardments on Baghdad tonight. Heavy detonations and the crackle of anti-aircraft fire were heard in the city as the first major bombardment of the Iraqi capital got under way.
The night sky over Baghdad was streaked with red and white tracers, and the flash of explosions could be seen on the horizon. The bombardment, which was apparently closely targeted, happened at around 1800GMT and lasted for about a quarter of an hour.
CNN reported that a building, associated with the ministry of planning, had been hit in what is known as Baghdad’s presidential area. Television pictures apparently showed Saddam Hussein’s main presidential complex on fire. Three distinct locations in the centre of Baghdad were smoking after apparently being bombed.
US helicopter ‘shot down’
Iraqi television reports tonight said that a US helicopter had been shot down.
“An American aircraft of the Sikorsky type used in carrying troops and equipment was downed as it was trying to infiltrate Iraqi airspace to carry out aggressive operations. Long live Iraq,” an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement read on television. He gave no further details.
US military officials were not immediately available for comment. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. manufactures the Black Hawk helicopter, which is used by US forces to fly troops into combat.
Iraqi oil wells set on fire
Flames could tonight be seen on the horizon in the direction of the southern Iraqi oil centre Basra, as Rumsfeld reported that three or four oil wells may have been set on fire across the country.
Witnesses in Kuwait, about eight miles south of the border, spotted flickering flames on the horizon after a series of explosions shook buildings in the area and sent farm workers running outside and shouting in alarm. It was not known whether the flames resulted from the explosions.
The Arab satellite television channel al-Arabiya reported that fires had erupted in Iraq’s valuable al-Rumeila field, west of Basra and just north of the Kuwaiti border.
A Marine battalion commander in northern Kuwait was reported to have said that “three oil wells have been torched” in Iraq.
Rumsfeld said that the military was seeking additional information.
Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing, Rumsfeld, said: “Needless to say, it is a crime … to be destroying the resources of the Iraqi people.”
The Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, is believed to have organised a meticulous plan for sabotaging Iraq’s oilfields in a scorched-earth tactic designed to cripple production.
Reports suggested that Iraqis have rigged their wells with explosives, hoping to slow the allied attack and making the country’s oil wealth worthless for any new government.
Coalition troops targeted
Around six hours after the US strikes, Iraq fired at least three missiles towards coalition forces stationed on the Iraq-Kuwait border. There were no injuries.
One was intercepted by US Patriot missiles, and the rest fell in the area near the Iraq border and in Kuwait Bay, Colonel Youssef al-Mullah, a spokesman for the Kuwaiti military, said. He added that there were no injuries and that it was not known if the missiles were carrying any non-conventional weapons.
Emergency sirens have wailed on at least four separate occasions in Kuwait City with people scrambling to put on gas masks amid fears that Iraq may try and hit the city with missiles.
Sky News had unconfirmed reports of fighting breaking out between allied forces and Iraqis in the demilitarised zone, which straddles the Iraq-Kuwait border. US officials have confirmed that special forces troops are already active inside Iraq.
There were also reports that coalition troops had begun an artillery barrage into Iraq from their location massed on the border.
Iraq targets coalition troops
Turkey to open airspace to US aircraft
Turkey’s parliament has voted to allow US warplanes to cross Turkish airspace to make strikes on Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported.
If confirmed, this would mean that the US could use Turkish airspace to transport troops into northern Iraq or to bring supplies to the region.
Blair to make televised address
Tony Blair has recorded a televised address to the nation, to be broadcast once British troops are “substantially engaged” in operations in Iraq, it emerged today.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said that the broadcast was recorded in Downing Street earlier today before Blair left for the EU summit in Brussels, and would be transmitted at “an appropriate time”.
Saddam defiant after ‘decapitation’ attempt
This morning’s opportunistic attempt to kill President Saddam and the rest of his leadership with a salvo of cruise missiles and bombs was described by the US as an attempt to “decapitate” the Iraqi government.
But it appeared to have failed when President Saddam made what Iraqi state television said was a live TV address around three hours after the attacks.
In a short but defiant speech, the Iraqi dictator called it a “shameful crime”, and vowed to lead his country to victory. He said: “The criminal little Bush has committed a crime against humanity.”
The address may have been taped earlier, but this seemed unlikely as President Saddam mentioned when the attack began. However, US officials said that other senior figures in the regime may have been killed, CNN reported.
The Red Cross said the strikes killed one civilian and wounded 14 others. Reuters reported that the civilian fatality was a male Jordanian taxi driver who had stopped to use a public telephone centre when US bombs hit.
The Iraqi information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, said the US strikes hit mostly empty media and customs buildings and civilian districts. However, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said that the overnight missile attacks had been on “command and control facilities” in Iraq. A US marine spokesman said targets were also hit in southern Iraq.
The US attack was not the start of the “shock and awe” blitzkrieg analysts had been predicting, but a surgical strike aimed directly at President Saddam.
The Washington Post said the Baghdad raid was ordered after the CIA had located where President Saddam was meeting aides in a private residence.
The first action of “Operation Iraqi Freedom” came around 90 minutes after the passing of the 0100 GMT deadline set by President Bush for Saddam to leave Iraq.
Around 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from four US warships and two US submarines, with the first strikes heard hitting targets on the outskirts of Baghdad at 0234 GMT (5.34am local time). US stealth bombers also dropped 2 000 pound bombs.
An American commander said similar strikes would continue for two or three days before an allied invasion and huge air assault, which the US has said could involve some 3 000 bombs and cruise missiles.
“These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign,” Bush said in a televised address given around two hours after the expiry of the US ultimatum.
Vatican, China and Russia condemn US attack
The Vatican said it was “deeply pained” by the start of the Iraq conflict, and deplored the abandonment of efforts to bring about a peaceful solution.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, called for an immediate end to the US-led action. Speaking to senior ministers in the Kremlin, Putin said: “Military action can in no way be justified. Military action is a big political error.”
China, meanwhile, accused the US of starting an illegitimate conflict and “violating the norms of international behaviour”. Japan, the Philippines, and Australia expressed support for the military action.
China and Russia condemn US attack
Protests as war begins
Tensions rose as police tried to control the mass of anti-war protesters gathering in Parliament Square today.
An estimated 5 000 demonstrators, the majority of them schoolchildren, thronged the streets to voice their anger against today’s US air strikes on Iraq.
The protesters were responding to a call by the UK anti-war movement for workers and students to stage a mass walkout from offices, schools and colleges.
Describing the outbreak of hostilities as a “day of shame”, the Stop the War Coalition said that it hoped to draw on the public feeling that saw more than one million people take to the streets of London last month.
The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the outbreak of war and said it was a “black day in our history”.
Propaganda broadcast
As the attack began, American messages were broadcast on Iraqi airwaves saying: “This is the day you have been waiting for,” according to Al-Jazeera TV.
Meanwhile, Iraqi satellite television, broadcasting after the attack began, said of the US troops: “It’s an inferno that awaits them. Let them try their faltering luck and they shall meet what awaits them.”
In other developments, oil prices tumbled to three-month lows as dealers bet on a swift US victory with little disruption to Middle East supply.