President Saddam Hussein's monument to himself burned last night after the United States and Britain launched what US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called a "fearsome bombardment" on Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.
Amid the single wall of explosions, giant bubbles flashed in a 180- degree arc along the west bank of the Tigris for more than half an hour. Red traces of fire flew like birds in diagonal flight, anti-aircraft artillery fired effortlessly but uselessly.
This was the Pentagon's long-awaited "shock and awe" bombing. The initial ferocious pounding of the city was followed by further sporadic attacks as the night wore on.
After the first raid, plumes of black smoke rose from the kilometre-long presidential palace of the republic, the Ministry for Military Procurement and Al-Rahed camp, the largest military in installation in Iraq at baf-Zafalia, south of Baghdad. There were more flashes as munitions stores and armories exploded from within.
Some of the bombs and missiles were launched from B52 bombers that left Britain in the afternoon. The apocalyptic barrage of continuous detonations made the ground reverberate across the city. One of the veterans of the 1991 Gulf War described the barrage as "the most terrifying I have ever experienced".
Ambulance sirens could be heard when the bombardment subsided and it was feared that because of the scale of the attack casualties, perhaps high, were inevitable. The White House sounded an optimistic note, however, saying there may be few civilians dead. "This is targeted at the military targets," the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said, adding, "and if there are civilian casualties, of course, there are no guarantees in war."
Earlier, the Iraqi News Agency said 37 Iraqis were wounded in air and cruise missile strikes overnight from Thursday to Friday, and that four Iraqi soldiers were killed.
The Iraqi Information Minister, Mr Mohamed al-Sahaf, confirmed that one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces was hit, but he said no one was hurt there. Several locations belonging to the Republican Guard, the force considered most loyal to Saddam, were also bombed.
Another of the destroyed buildings, the planning ministry on the banks of the Tigris, is rumoured to have housed the offices of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Journalists here were told the Ministry of Information would show them bomb damage, but they were instead taken to see "human shields" at a power plant.
Mr al-Sahaf denied that Iraqi troops had surrendered in the southern part of the country. "They are not Iraqi soldiers and we say they do not form part of the Iraqi armed forces."
Mr al-Sahaf claimed the Geneva Convention would not apply to prisoners taken by Iraq. "They are not soldiers. They are mercenaries to whom international law does not apply," he said.
At Friday prayers at the Mother of All Battles Mosque - named after the 1991 Gulf War - Sheikh Abdelatif Homayen exhorted the faithful: "Arabs, Muslims! Surround the Americans and kill them everywhere you see them!" The sheikh called the US invasion "a barbarous aggression by one of the most powerful nations in the world".
President Saddam has offered a bounty to Iraqi soldiers. "Any valiant Iraqi fighter who shoots down an enemy warplane will be rewarded with 100 million Iraqi dinars (€31,600)," the beleaguered leader promised. The capture of a US or British soldier was valued at 50 million dinars, the killing of a US or British soldier at 25 million.
