A barrage of mighty explosives crashed down Friday on Baghdad, sending enormous fireballs and clouds of smoke billowing high into the night sky above the Iraqi capital.
The U.S.-led aerial attack was heralded by the sound of air raid sirens and explosions, followed quickly by major detonations in the city of five million. Many buildings were ablaze in the heart of the capital, with towering red, pink and brown clouds rising high into the air.
In response, the Iraqis opened up with anti-aircraft bursts which winked in the darkness.
The spectacular blasts lit up the night sky, illuminating the city even as they decimated it. Clouds of smoke extended high above Baghdad as fires burned; at one point, the sound of a missile roared through the street before exploding into a fireball.
Three major fires raged on Saddam Hussein's sprawling Old Palace compound on the west side of the Tigris River, officially the heart of the Iraqi state that includes the offices of the prime minister's staff and the cabinet. The turquoise-domed main building appeared to be untouched.
However, a building next to the palace was on fire and black smoke billowed from a 10-storey building in another part of the compound.
White flashes could be seen in the areas west of the palace in Baghdad. The area includes many government buildings, including the main intelligence centre and headquarters of the ruling Baath party.
"Baghdad is burning," said a correspondent for the Al-Jazeera television network. "What more can we say."
The lights in the city dimmed but came back on once the bombing started. Red tracer fire shot across the night sky as the U.S. plan to "shock and awe" Iraqi troops began.
But even as the explosions resounded in the background, the Iraqi defence minister, Lt.-Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmed, told reporters coalition forces were targeting the southern cities of Basra and Nassiriyah.
More than a half-hour after the attack began, Iraqi radio and television were still broadcasting and the power stayed on.
At the same time as explosions rocked Baghdad, Al-Jazeera reported large booms and flashes of light in three directions from Mosul, though no direct hits in the northern city itself. Explosions came from the direction of Dohuk in the north, Kirkuk and the Mosul-Syrian border highways.
Anti-aircraft fire was also reported by witnesses over the northern oil city of Kirkuk at about the same time as the attack on the capital was underway.
In Washington, a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Friday's bombardment might not be as intense as originally planned because surrender talks were continuing with senior Iraqi officials. The official said if the negotiations faltered in the coming hours, the bombing would go full-throttle.
A semblance of normalcy had returned to Baghdad earlier Friday after U.S.-led bombings Thursday morning and then again at night. There was traffic on the streets, many shops were open and people were out during the daylight hours.
Many shops and cafes remained open, providing the city with a surface appearance of everyday life, except for the armed Baath party activists and jeeps mounted with heavy machine guns cruising the streets.
The Iraqi News Agency said 37 people were injured in Thursday night's raid at heart of Baghdad and in other locations in and around the city.
