BUSH SAYS CAMPAIGN COULD BE LONGER AND MORE DIFFICULT

LONDON 20 Mar. (IPS) Explosions rocked Baghdad at dawn on Thursday as the United States launched a war to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Reuters reported from the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

"Jets roared overhead, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries opened up and air raid sirens sounded", said Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki, reporting from the city center.

The United States said the attack on Iraq had begun, just 90 minutes after its deadline for the president to quit Iraq had passed, and "assuming that the Iraqi President was in the area".

There was no immediate reaction from Tehran, as the country was entering a two-weeks-long holiday to celebrate the new Iranian year of 1382, starting on Friday 21 March.

But earlier report had suggested that hours before the start of the operations, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the Iranian leader, had ordered Iranian Armed Forces to open Iran's borders with Iraq, allowing Iran-based anti-Saddam forces to enter Iraq from the southern regions border the Iraqi strategic province of Basra.

Bush, accusing Saddam of hiding chemical and biological weapons, set the ultimatum for him to flee into exile or face war with U.S.-led forces.

US President George W. Bush, addressing the nation from the White House, said that "coalition forces" had started "early stages of war" against Iraq.

"My fellow citizens, at this hour, 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", he said in a short, five-minute televised address.

"On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war", he said.

"These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as California could be longer and more difficult than some predict", Bush said, adding: "America faces an enemy that has no regard for the rules of war. Saddam is attempting to perpetrate a final atrocity against his people. Coalition forces will make every effort to spare innocent civilians from harm". ENDS ATTACK BEGINS ON IRAQ 20303