SHOCK AND AWE OPERATIONS ON "MASSIVE SCALE"

LONDON 21 Mar. (IPS)    United States-led "Shock and Awe" operations aimed at toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hoseyn entered Friday evening a new phase, with hundreds of missiles hitting targets in Baghdad, but also in the oil-rich, northern cities of Kirkook and Mawsel, which are controlled by Iraqi forces.

International television networks show images of the Iraqi Capital enveloped in clouds of smoke provoked by explosions, as Cruise and other missiles hit targets in different parts of the city.

American sources said beside Baghdad, Kirkook and Mausel, Saddam Hoseyn's hometown of Tikrit, 40 kilometres north of the Capital was also hit.

Correspondents in Baghdad said they rarely saw such a massive attack and expected important causalities among the civilian population.

Confirming the escalation on the "Shock and Awe" operations, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assured Friday that "everything" would be done to spare civilian lives, but at the same time warned that the war would continue until Mr. Saddam is booted out of Iraq, paving the way for the Iraqi people to install their own desired regime, in respect of human rights, freedom and democracy.

Both American and British military sources confirmed the capture of two small, but strategic ports of Faw and Um al Qasr, adding that their forces are moving towards the city of Basra, on the Shat el Arab river that border with neighbouring Iran.

British news agency Reuters reported a while ago that oil installations in Iran have been hit, probably by a stray missile.

Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, described Friday the US-led attack on Iraq as "satanic" and called for an "immediate halt" to the invasion. 

"Although the attack has started at the American and British will, it is not clear whether the end of the war will also be at their hands if they do not rapidly pull out of this battle", Mr. Khameneh'i said in his No Rooz (Iranian new that starts today) message to the nation.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, while calling for immediate halt to the war, does not defend the dictatorial Ba'ath regime; it only defends the Iraqi nation and believes that the future of Iraq must be decided only by the Iraqi nation", he stressed. 

As Baghdad was under heavy bombardment, in Tehran, sources from the Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SAIRI) said their forces, estimated at between 25.000 to 50.000, might cross into Iraq "probably tonight".

SAIRI's leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim met Friday with the British Ambassador in Iran and discussed the situation, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Informed sources had told earlier Iran Press Service that ayatollah Khameneh'i had ordered Iranian forces to open Iranian southern borders with Iraq to allow forces of the "al-Badr" Brigade to move into Iraq and occupy Basra "just ahead" of the British and American forces, reported to be marching towards the city, the largest after Baghdad and where the majority of the inhabitants are Shi'ites. ENDS SHOCK AND AWE 21303