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US forces raid Saddam`s palaces as Blair, Bush meet
Baghdad, Apr 08: US officials said an airstrike on a building in Baghdad could have killed Saddam Hussein and his sons, just hours after US tanks and armoured vehicles smashed into the heart of the capital, raiding three of the Iraqi leader`s palaces.
Baghdad, Apr 08: US officials said an airstrike on a building in Baghdad could have killed Saddam Hussein and his sons, just hours after US tanks and armoured vehicles smashed into the heart of the capital, raiding three of the Iraqi leader's palaces.
Intelligence information pointed US officials to where Saddam and his sons may have been staying and led them to order the airstrike yesterday, a US official said in Washington.
"We just don't know who might have been killed," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On the ground in Baghdad fighting was heard overnight near Saddam's main Republican palace, a massive compound on the western side of the Tigris. A fire was seen blazing in the area. Several explosions were heard at 5:00 am (0630 IST) followed by exchanges of gunfire. On the diplomatic front, US President George W Bush arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, late yesterday for the third meeting in as many weeks with his closest ally in the war, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, travelling with Bush, said the Iraq war was going "exceptionally well," and that Washington would be sending a team to the Gulf this week to begin the process of putting together an interim authority to run the country.
More than 1,000 anti-war protesters however marched near Hillsborough Castle, south of Belfast, where Bush and Blair held their two-day summit.
At least nine people were injured and 30 arrested yesterday when police at the port of Oakland, near San Francisco, fired rubber bullets, concussion grenades and bean bags to break up a protest against the Iraq war.
The skirmish marks the first time police had opened fire on US anti-war demonstrators since the war began.
At least 89 US military personnel have been killed and 155 injured since the war began March 20, the Pentagon said yesterday. Seven are also being held as prisoners of war, and eight others are reported missing in action.
There were 30 British casualties, and at least 484 Iraqi deaths.
In southern Iraq, British forces yesterday said the battle for the key city of Basra was largely over, and that Ali Hasan al-Majid -- a senior Saddam aide known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988 -- was likely killed in a weekend US-British air strike.
His death "closes one of the darkest chapters of recent Kurdish history," said Barham Salih, who acts as prime minister for areas under control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
But Salih said he would have "preferred to see him respond to his crimes before an international criminal court."
More than 100 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles belonging to the US 3rd Infantry Division meanwhile pushed towards the western bank of the Tigris in Baghdad earlier yesterday.
Bureau Report
On the ground in Baghdad fighting was heard overnight near Saddam's main Republican palace, a massive compound on the western side of the Tigris. A fire was seen blazing in the area. Several explosions were heard at 5:00 am (0630 IST) followed by exchanges of gunfire. On the diplomatic front, US President George W Bush arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, late yesterday for the third meeting in as many weeks with his closest ally in the war, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, travelling with Bush, said the Iraq war was going "exceptionally well," and that Washington would be sending a team to the Gulf this week to begin the process of putting together an interim authority to run the country.
More than 1,000 anti-war protesters however marched near Hillsborough Castle, south of Belfast, where Bush and Blair held their two-day summit.
At least nine people were injured and 30 arrested yesterday when police at the port of Oakland, near San Francisco, fired rubber bullets, concussion grenades and bean bags to break up a protest against the Iraq war.
The skirmish marks the first time police had opened fire on US anti-war demonstrators since the war began.
At least 89 US military personnel have been killed and 155 injured since the war began March 20, the Pentagon said yesterday. Seven are also being held as prisoners of war, and eight others are reported missing in action.
There were 30 British casualties, and at least 484 Iraqi deaths.
In southern Iraq, British forces yesterday said the battle for the key city of Basra was largely over, and that Ali Hasan al-Majid -- a senior Saddam aide known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988 -- was likely killed in a weekend US-British air strike.
His death "closes one of the darkest chapters of recent Kurdish history," said Barham Salih, who acts as prime minister for areas under control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
But Salih said he would have "preferred to see him respond to his crimes before an international criminal court."
More than 100 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles belonging to the US 3rd Infantry Division meanwhile pushed towards the western bank of the Tigris in Baghdad earlier yesterday.
Bureau Report