U.S. launches war on Iraq

Addressing the nation Wednesday night, President George W. Bush announced the U.S.-led attack against Iraq has begun.

“American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger,” Bush said.

The announcement came just two hours after the end of the 48-hour ultimatum given by the president Monday night to Saddam Hussein and his sons to vacate Iraq or face military force.

The Iraqi president and his sons said Tuesday they had no plans to leave the country.

Shortly after 5:30 a.m. Thursday (9:30 p.m. EST Wednesday), explosions and air-raid sirens were reported in the southern and eastern suburbs of Baghdad and later in the city center, according to Reuters.

Approximately three-dozen cruise missiles were fired from ships in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, a senior military official told Fox News. Tomahawk cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs were also used in the early morning attack.

“These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign,” Bush said, adding that the coalition will first attack targets of military importance.

Pentagon officials described the beginning stages as a “decapitation attack” to take out the Iraqi president before the planned start of the war, CNN reported. Whether the mission was successful is not yet known.

“This will not be a campaign of half measures and we will accept no outcome but victory,” Bush said.

Shortly after the bombing began, Hussein’s state-run TV station, Al-Shabab, televised a message to Americans: “It’s an inferno that awaits them. Let them try their faltering luck, and they shall meet what awaits them.”

More than 35 countries are giving support to the 300,000 U.S. and British troops already positioned around Iraqi borders the president said Wednesday night. Army Gen. Tommy Franks is the overall commander for U.S. operations in what is now being called “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Seventeen Iraqi soldiers surrendered Wednesday before the strikes began and were handed over to Kuwaiti authorities. Pentagon authorities said they hope eventually tens of thousands will cross the border and surrender. The U.S. Air Force has dropped more than 2 million leaflets explaining to Iraqi soldiers how to avoid being harmed in a U.S.-led invasion.

Before the attacks began, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer addressed the realities of war: “Americans ought to be prepared for loss of life.”

Olivia Lloyd and Sarah Kite contributed to this story.