Allied Raids Achieve 2 Goals but Miss Scuds : Military: Air dominance is established over Iraq, and many vital sites are hit. But some missiles evade attack.

The opening day of the air war against Iraq apparently succeeded in two of its key objectives--the establishment of air dominance over Iraq and Kuwait and the destruction of many critical military and industrial facilities, military officials said Thursday.

But a critical Iraqi capability--its medium-range Scud missiles that were used to attack Israel early today--evaded the U.S. aerial onslaught.

Allied warplanes responded immediately to Iraq’s launching of Scud missiles against Israel, taking retaliatory raids against the surface-to-surface missile launchers that are among the most difficult military targets in Iraq.

“This particular effort, to go after those missiles involved in the attack on Israel, is a new mission,” Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said.

Although the Iraqi missile attacks failed to draw Israel into the war, they succeeded in puncturing a mood of near-invincibility among U.S. war strategists after the first night, during which allied warplanes met little resistance when they went after 159 targets in Iraq and Kuwait.

Among those targets were President Saddam Hussein’s bunker and residence in Baghdad, said Rep. Bill Dickinson (R-Ala.) after a briefing from Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell told lawmakers that the two sites were on the list because of command-and-control facilities at each place, but there was no reason to believe that Hussein was present at the time of the attacks.

Dickinson quoted Powell as saying: “We’re not chasing the guy. We’re going after military targets.”

Before the Iraqi missile assault on Israel, U.S. officials said that fixed missile launch sites known as H-2 and H-3 in western Iraq, bases for the Scud missiles targeted on Israel, had been destroyed. But clearly some mobile launchers based in that part of the country survived the allied attacks and were used to hit Tel Aviv.

A senior Pentagon official acknowledged Thursday evening that the search for Iraq’s remaining Scud mobile missile launchers posed a “predominant problem” for U.S. military commanders. Officials indicated that the aircraft used in the attempt to locate and destroy the launchers were F-15E ground-attack jets and F-117 Stealth fighters.

At the start of the war, Iraq was thought to have 108 Scud missile launchers, roughly two-thirds of them mobile. It is not known how many were destroyed in the first day of combat.

The targets successfully hit in the initial air attack ranged from the Saad 16 chemical and nuclear weapons complex in the north to the Salman Pak biological weapons laboratory south of Baghdad, military officials said. U.S. warplanes also reportedly attacked facilities producing nuclear weapons, missile parts and military electronics, as well as weapons depots and staging areas for troops.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry in central Baghdad was described by witnesses as a “smoking ruin.”

The devastation of so many military and industrial targets clearly indicated that U.S. war aims went far beyond the stated objective of driving Iraqi troops from Kuwait in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

A broader agenda--the destruction of Iraq’s ability to wage war now or in the future--was evident from the conduct of the massive air assault.

After the more than 1,000 air sorties against Iraq on the first night, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said, “I’m comfortable that we are able to achieve control of Iraqi airspace.”

A senior Pentagon official, speaking later in the day, tempered Cheney’s comments. “I wouldn’t describe (access to Iraqi airspace) as ‘at will.’ There’s still a risk here,” the official said. “It’s important to remember the operation’s by no means over, that Iraq retains still some very threatening capabilities, and so you can’t write the end of the race yet.”

A third wave of B-52 attacks was launched late Thursday against Iraqi troop deployments and a major command center in southern Iraq, according to sources. The elite Republican Guards unit--considered the only top-flight ground force in the Iraqi army--was absorbing the brunt of the punishment from B-52 carpet bombing, officials said.

The French chief of staff, Gen. Maurice Schmitt, said in Paris that half of Iraq’s air force was destroyed in the initial air assault. But that would leave Baghdad with about 300 aircraft, which reportedly have been dispersed and protected in hardened shelters.

The U.S.-led air strikes left many Iraqi military and civilian airport runways cratered and unusable, according to a Bush Administration official.

But important questions remain over how completely the air assault destroyed Iraq’s military and civilian command structure, how many mobile missile launchers survived the first wave of attacks and when the allied warplanes will begin to focus bombardments on the half-million Iraqi troops in Kuwait and southern Iraq.

It is not clear how the bombing of Israel will affect U.S. plans, beyond Thursday night’s retaliatory raids against the suspected mobile launch sites. Pentagon officials have said that the first days of military operations would follow a pre-written script, with specific targets scheduled to be hit each day.

On Day 2, for example, the attacking planes would have 80% new targets and 20% targets that were hit on Day 1 under the plan, an official said.

Raids will go on “until we have achieved our objective,” Cheney said. “Our objective is to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.”

U.S. officials were perplexed about why Iraq’s Hussein kept most of his air force on the ground and failed to launch his missiles the first day he was attacked, although his tactical plan appeared to be to ride out the first wave and retaliate with missiles. French Gen. Schmitt said that only 15 Iraqi fighters took flight in the first night of combat.

“It could mean that they were unprepared,” said Air Force Col. John McBroom, commander of the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, who flew his F-15 jet as an escort for the second attack wave.

“I just thought . . . if somebody was coming into my homeland, I would go after them a little bit harder, I feel like, than he came after us,” McBroom told a combat news pool. “But I don’t have all the knowledge of all the damage that has been done. Maybe we’ve done such an outstanding job that he does not have the capability.

“I’m not exactly sure why he wasn’t airborne,” he added. “Whatever the reason, it made for a very uneventful, routine day. I know a lot of guys who are looking forward to matching up against Iraq.”

Other military officials speculated that Hussein was conserving his aircraft to deny the United States and its allies the unfettered mastery of the skies they believe they need to destroy, or reduce, the Iraqi ground force.

It remained unclear whether the attack on Tel Aviv was part of a pre-planned strategy, or one that developed only after Hussein saw firsthand the destructive powers of the allied forces.

In any event, a senior Air Force official said that even before the attack on Israel there was concern at the Pentagon that casualties will mount now that the allies no longer enjoy the element of surprise.

Defense officials said the air war will continue on targets that were missed or only partially destroyed. The daylight hours Thursday were used to do “bomb damage assessment” from cameras on satellites and aircraft such as the RF-4C reconnaissance plane.