Deadline passes; U.S. raids Baghdad: Aerial strikes target Saddam directly; Bush addresses nation (Alex Johnson and Kari Huus, MSNBC)

President Bush told the nation Wednesday night that the ?opening stages? of Operation Iraqi Freedom were under way. U.S. forces stepped up what had been intended as an initial softening of the battlefield by launching an aerial bombardment of Baghdad in an attempt to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. [...]

A senior U.S. official said the raids in and around Baghdad had been intended as "extensive prepping of the battlefield" in the no-fly zone in the south of the country. But the attack was ramped up after U.S. intelligence spotted what was termed a "target of opportunity," described as a "senior or very senior member of the Iraqi regime."

U.S. officials told Miklaszewski that the target was Saddam himself. They would not say whether the attack, in which F-117s dropped mammoth GBU-27 "bunker buster" bombs, was successful.

'CONSCRIPTS TO SURRENDER (Sky News, 3/20/03)

'Two-thirds of Iraq's conscript army are ready to surrender without a fight, according to US military sources in Kuwait.

Two army divisions totalling 20,000 troops based in the south of Iraq are set to give themselves up to Allied forces in nearby Kuwait, the sources told Sky News reporter Colin Brazier.

The sources said Iraq's 11th infantry and 51st mechanised divisions were "ready to capitulate".

They said troops from the 6th armoured division were also believed to be considering giving themselves up.

Brazier, with US troops in Kuwait, said recent intelligence briefings had reported the troops were badly motivated.

Asked why the conscripts would surrender, Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall said: "They are underfed, underpaid and extremely scared."

SADDAM WAS ATTACK TARGET (Sky News, 3/20/03)

The cruise missile attack on Baghdad was aimed at wiping out Saddam Hussein, US sources said.

Pentagon sources said the Iraqi leader, his two sons and senior military officials were the targets of the strike.

The sources said they had intelligence information pinpointing where Saddam and the others may have been.