U.S. Bombs Baghdad : Allied Jets Raid Targets Across Iraq : Gulf war: Explosions and fires are reported in the capital. ‘The liberation of Kuwait has begun,’ Bush says. Hussein declares that ‘Iraq will never surrender.’

War with Iraq began today as hundreds of American, British, Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian warplanes bombed strategic targets in Iraq and occupied Kuwait.

Led by U.S. F-15 fighter-bombers based in Saudi Arabia, the massive air offensive was launched about 1:50 p.m. PST Wednesday--early today, Persian Gulf time--and within three hours explosions and fires were reported in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

“The liberation of Kuwait has begun,” President Bush announced from the White House shortly afterward in a statement read by his spokesman.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in an address on Baghdad Radio, declared that “the big confrontation has begun in the mother of all battles between the right and the wrong.” Calling on his people to resist the onslaught, he declared, “Iraq will never surrender.”

Early reports indicated that the carefully orchestrated air raids, beginning only a day after a United Nations deadline for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait had expired, succeeded in hitting at least some Iraqi radar and communications facilities in Baghdad. The Pentagon said the attacks struck at Iraqi air bases and aircraft, chemical and nuclear plants and missile sites.

There were reports that the raids inflicted massive damage, but there was no official confirmation of the extent of it. The Pentagon also declined to comment on casualties.

The attacks began in darkness after 2:30 a.m. today, Baghdad time, and the Saudi military described the raids as “mammoth.”

Hundreds of American warplanes and at least 150 Saudi aircraft roared into the night sky as wave after wave of bombers carried out the attacks.

Bush, in a televised address to the nation at 6 p.m. PST, declared after the initial attack that “we will not fail” to free Kuwait. He also said the assault is “determined to knock out Iraq’s vast military arsenal.”

The neutralization of Hussein’s war machine has been a major objective of the United States, its Persian Gulf allies and Israel since Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait Aug. 2 and seized control of the oil-rich sheikdom.

Bush said, “Saddam Hussein’s forces will leave Kuwait and the legitimate government of Kuwait will be restored.” Although Hussein had threatened that if attacked he would retaliate quickly against Israel, no such assault was reported hours afterward, and the Saudi oil fields--considered another prime target--were also reported safe.

As the bombers swarmed over Baghdad, Iraqi antiaircraft batteries opened fire with booming volleys that could be heard on live news broadcasts from Baghdad. Bursts of light from explosions and tracers lit up the night sky.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, appearing at a late briefing at the Pentagon, said preliminary reports indicated that the operation had gone “very well” in its first stages, encountering only limited Iraqi resistance. He declined to comment on casualties or whether there were any losses among the U.S. and allied air fleet.

“I will simply say that preliminary reports we have received in terms of the success of the operation, and that includes the possibility of casualties, have been very, very encouraging,” Cheney said.

Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the air attacks were far from over. “It doesn’t end. . . , “ he said, “until the whole campaign is completed.”

Confirmation of the assault--relayed in the live television reports of booming explosions and gunfire from the Iraqi capital--came after the White House’s grimmest and most direct threats of imminent hostilities. At the White House press room Wednesday morning, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater indicated that Bush’s patience was exhausted and offered his “personal” advice to reporters to get their colleagues out of Baghdad immediately. War could begin “at any time,” he said.

At his briefing, Cheney disclosed that at Bush’s direction he had signed an executive order Tuesday afternoon authorizing the military action after all conditions of the resolution passed by Congress sanctioning the attack, including notification of congressional leaders, had been met.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State James A. Baker III met with and telephoned a long list of foreign leaders in the hours leading up to the attack. Some of the contacts lasted no more than two minutes, said State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler, because all decisions had been made earlier.

Baker told the foreign officials, “This is your notification call,” Tutwiler said.

Cheney said that in the air operation, “great care” had been taken to concentrate on military targets, avoid civilian institutions and minimize civilian casualties. The raids were aimed at destroying Iraq’s offensive military capability, he said.

Cable News Network reporter John Holliman, reporting from Baghdad, said: “ . . . Every bomb we’ve seen land has hit something directly, like the refinery. We can continue to hear the sound of bombs. There’s a tower of smoke over the city.”

Bush had been steadfast in insisting that Iraq would face a crushing attack if it failed to comply with the U.N.-imposed deadline. On Saturday he had warned that an attack would come “sooner rather than later” after the deadline.

United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar received no advance notice of the attack, a spokesman said.

“What can I tell you, my dear friends? After all my efforts, after all the efforts of so many countries and so many personalities, that we are now facing a war,” Perez de Cuellar said.

The secretary general said he wanted to express his “deep sorrow.”

“I can only be saddened by the beginning of hostilities,” he added.

Americans learned of the beginning of the war from radio and television reports broadcast live from the scene. The dramatic reports picked up the sounds of antiaircraft fire and of bombs exploding.

There were indications the attack may have caught Baghdad by surprise because lights were on in the city as the planes arrived, and were blacked out only some time after the bombs began falling.

There were no signs that the Iraqi air force had launched its French-made Mirage jets to engage the attackers. Nor were there any initial indications that the Soviet-made Scud missiles, which Iraq threatened to use to land chemical warheads on Saudi Arabia and Israel, had been launched, according to broadcast reports.

Downtown Baghdad was reported ablaze with the spectacle of war: explosions that rocked buildings and flares of light that lit up the sky.

A CBS cameraman, David Green, reported today that Iraqi artillery was being fired against an oil refinery in the Saudi town of Khafji, about eight miles from the Kuwait border, but other reports indicated there had been little or no damage.

At a briefing in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, before the start of hostilities, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Greg Pepin said the number of U.S. troops in the gulf had reached 425,000, equipped with 1,200 main battle tanks, 2,200 armored personnel carriers, more than 80 combat ships, 1,700 helicopters and 1,800 aircraft.

As Wednesday progressed, Pepin said, the Iraqi forces in Kuwait were “in a defensive position and hardening those positions.” From the gulf to the White House, the warning was that the battle could begin at any moment.

Aboard the battleship Wisconsin in the Persian Gulf, Navy Capt. David Bill had put his ship on “DEFCON 2” alert status.

“This means that we want to get ready to fight,” the skipper said. “Gentlemen, the bottom line is the bell is about ready to ring. We need to make sure we’re ready to answer.”

White House press secretary Fitzwater had warned all Americans remaining in Iraq that their safety could not be guaranteed.

“I advise all who can leave Iraq to do so at once,” he said.

Throughout the day, the world braced for the sounds of war, but until 2:30 a.m. today in Iraq, an uneasy silence prevailed. Iraq was fortifying its defensive positions in Kuwait, and the White House had warned that war “could begin at any time.”

Still, the White House had left it unclear throughout the day just what the President planned.

“We are approaching the hard decision that would have to be made for the use of force,” Fitzwater said earlier.

State Department spokeswoman Tutwiler had said early in the day that “if there was an initiative or indication from Baghdad of a willingness to comply with 12 United Nations resolutions (calling for Iraq’s withdrawal), that would have to be pursued.”

Bush, for his part, went through all the normal paces of a normal presidential day--an intelligence and national security briefing in the morning, a meeting with his education secretary-designate, Lamar Alexander, and--as usual on Wednesday--an early end to his public schedule with a midafternoon meeting with Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.

“The President is calm, but confident that he’s considered all aspects of this--that he’s worked diligently with the coalition partners, and that all the planning has been done necessary for him to make a decision,” Fitzwater said early in the day. “There is a sort of resignation that we need to pursue the planning for the use of force on a very deliberate basis.”

While the more than 1 million troops were poised across the lines of potential battle on Wednesday, the diplomats had fallen silent, and the only question hanging over Washington, Baghdad and the sands of the Middle East throughout the day was: When?

In Baghdad, the radio had given civil defense instructions Wednesday for air raids, telling listeners to turn off lights during alerts, safely store fuel and cut power before leaving houses for shelters.

Sadi Mehdi Saleh, the Speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly, had said Wednesday that if attacked, Iraq would use chemical weapons.

President Bush, Fitzwater said at midday, “has gone beyond the extra mile for peace. Saddam Hussein has yet to take the first step.”

“The President is steeled for what’s ahead,” Fitzwater said.

In Europe, allied parliaments had fallen into line. The French National Assembly, by a vote of 523 to 43, approved President Francois Mitterrand’s decision to send 10,000 French troops into action in the gulf.

“I say it with regret but with determination: The use of armed force to oblige Iraq to evacuate Kuwait is now legitimate,” Mitterrand said in a statement read to the assembly.

Prime Minister Michel Rocard said France’s only objective was to get Iraq out of Kuwait. “There is no question of flattening Iraq,” he said.

In Rome, the government asked Parliament to allow Italy’s small naval and air contingent in the gulf to join the military action. A vote was expected this morning.

A last-minute appeal for peace from Pope John Paul II was sent to Bush and Hussein, which was received early Wednesday morning at the White House via diplomatic pouch.

The Pope had called on Hussein to “make a generous gesture” and urged Bush to “keep up efforts to avoid a conflict.”

DELIVERING A BLOW

U.S.-led air strike targets nearly all chemical and nuclear sites in Iraq, with the goal of decimating its air force. Ground-to-ground Scud missiles, capable of striking Saudi or Israeli cities, were hit early. There was no official confirmation of the extent of damage.

Iraqi and Kuwaiti Targets Nuclear, weapons facilities Airfields Missile sites Oil refineries Chemical production plants

THE FUSE IS LIT

Key times as the United States goes to war: 1:50 pm: F-15E fighter-bombers take off at 12:50 a.m. local time from largest U.S. air base in central Saudi Arabia.

3 pm: President Bush begins calling congressional and world leaders.

3:35 pm: CNN, ABC start broadcasting war reports.

4 pm: Presidential press spokesman Marlin Fitzwater announces start of Operation Desert Storm.

4:20 pm: Journalists in Dhahran report air raid sirens. In Baghdad, others report bombs falling on capital.

6 pm: Bush addresses nation.

6:15 pm: CNN reports that planes return to Saudi bases.

6:30 pm: Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell hold briefing.

10:35 pm: Allied aircraft renew raids.