US forces tried to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with a huge bomb strike in Baghdad, US officials said today as American tanks fought an intense battle with Iraqi soldiers in the heart of the city.
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US aircraft dropped four 2,000 lb bombs on a building in a residential area yesterday after US intelligence reports said the Iraqi leader and his sons Uday and Qusay might have been inside with other Iraqi leaders.
"A leadership target was hit very hard," Major Brad Bartlett, a spokesman at US Central Command war headquarters in Qatar, said. "Battle damage assessment is ongoing," he added.
There was no word on the fate of Saddam or his sons.
The building was destroyed in the blasts by a B-1 bomber in the Baghdad district of Mansur that gouged a huge crater.
Mansur is a stronghold of Saddam's Ba'ath Party and Iraqi television showed pictures last week of what it said was Saddam strolling through the streets of areas including Mansur. He was hailed by people who promised to die for him if needed.
Saddam was also targeted in an initial US strike on March 20th on a residential compound on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
Today US tanks which stormed into the heart of the city yesterday, were engaged in a fierce clash with Iraqi forces after staking out a US foothold in the Iraqi capital, witnesses said.