Just heard the report on MSNBCFour 2000 pound bunker buster bombs were dropped on a target in a residential area of Baghdad today according to the Pentagon. The reporter said that Pentagon officials told him they had resonable intelligence that Saddam and his two sons were inside the complex when it was bombed along with other senior iraqi officials.
Let's hope so. Will add link when one comes up.
FOLLOWUP: From FoxNews...
Belief now among many senior U.S. officials that the work they carried out tonight accomplished the goal they intended to accomplish... Carl Cameron reports the strike was from a tip, not a wiretap. There was a major Iraqi leadership meeting. Four bunkerbusters were used. Officials believe Sammy and sons were in the building at the time. All that's left is a crater.
More followup, from MSNBC â sonic's original story...
A U.S. Air Force warplane dropped four enormous bombs Monday on a residential neighborhood where âextremely reliableâ intelligence information indicated that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons were staying, senior administration officials told NBC News. The sources would not rule out the possibility that Saddam could have moved before the planes struck, but they said it was highly likely that he and his sons were dead if they were still there when the bombs hit.
BASED ON an intelligence source on the ground in Baghdad, U.S. military officials were confident that Saddam and his sons, Uday and Qusay, were attending a meeting in the neighborhood, senior officials said. Officials quickly called in Air Force jets to strike the location Monday with four GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition weapons, the 2,000-pound smart bombs known as âbunker busters.â Diplomatic officials and officials at the Pentagon told NBC News that they were highly confident that they killed everyone at the meeting. Military officials at U.S. Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar, confirmed the airstrike but would not comment on its possible effect.
FOLLOWUP: From FoxNews...
Rita Cosby says that the tip-offs came from special ops forces, and that Sammy's communications on a frequency-hopper system were being monitored up to right before the strike. The crater's said to be impressive. Here's hoping there's enough fragments left for a positive identification.
FOLLOWUP: From Washington Times...
The U.S.-led coalition bombed a Baghdad commercial block yesterday after receiving a tip that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was there, while across town the U.S. Army parked its tanks on the Tigris River in the front yard of one of the dictator's largest palaces. A U.S. military official told The Washington Times that the allies bombed the al Saa restaurant block at 3 p.m. Baghdad time yesterday on information from a "sensitive intelligence source." The source said that Saddam and senior Ba'ath Party leaders were meeting with 30 intelligence officials in a facility behind or beneath the restaurant.
The military source said the site bombed yesterday is used by the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS), or Mukhabarat. It is the same al Mansur neighborhood where Saddam made a highly publicized street walk Friday, greeting jubilant supporters. The video was played on Iraqi TV. He also delivered a taped address on Iraqi TV, referring to a downed Apache helicopter. The official said the tape's background views of Baghdad, and the intelligence source, provided information on Saddam's whereabouts. Another U.S. official said intelligence agencies did not know last night who was killed in yesterday's bombing, which created a huge crater and destroyed the al Saa restaurant. A reporter on the scene said at least 14 persons were killed. The military source said the IIS may have picked the spot to meet because it did not believe the allies would bomb a commercial block. The allies have stated their objective to avoid civilian casualties. The U.S. official said intelligence agencies have concluded that both of Friday's videotapes do in fact show Saddam, not a double, and that they were "more than likely" made after the March 19 bombing attack on one of his residences in south Baghdad.
| Everybody's being very careful to add that there's no confirmation, even though they obviously have their hopes up and there's some corroborating evidence ("roaches check in, they don't check out"). We'll probably know tomorrow â if there are a lot of people coming out and explaining that they never liked him and didn't join the party, or only joined the party for the business contacts, then he's toe-tagged, assuming there's a toe left. Wonder what Mr Minister of Information's going to have to say? |