Pentagon officials have described the early stages of the military operation against Iraq as a "decapitation attack" to eliminate President Saddam Hussein.

However, the officials said it cannot be ascertained whether the operation was a success since it was difficult to target a single person o­n the ground in such bombings.

A CNN report said two dozen cruise missiles were fired from US warships stationed in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. F117 stealth fighters - which carried two missiles each - were also involved in the pre-dawn raid which started at 5.30am Iraqi time (11.30am Malaysian time).

The attack came about 90 minutes after the 48-hour deadline given to Saddam and his two sons to leave the country expired.

The report also quoted US President George W Bush as saying that the military campaign would make efforts to spare Iraqi civilians but stressed that the US planned to use its full might for the war.

"This will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory," he said in a four-minute announcement from the Oval Office in Washington.

"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 added.

Unusual timing

In a related development, a BBC report said the timing of the attack was unusual as it came in broad daylight.

Its correspondent in Baghdad said traffic remained normal and people were beginning to appear o­n the streets in the city.

He added that anti-aircraft guns were in action for about 15 minutes, after which the city became quiet again.

BBC

also quoted reports as saying that the same target, in the east of the city, appeared to have been hit three or four times.

Meanwhile, Bush was quoted in this report as saying that the campaign could be "longer and more difficult than some predict".

World waits

International news agency AFP said the people in Baghdad and the world were waiting for what Bush called a " a time of our choosing" for the ground attack from the 250,000 coalition troops massed around the Iraqi border.

However, the US army reported no military activity immediately following the expiry of the 48-hour deadline.

"We don't have anything to report,'' said Captain Danielle Burrows of the forward command and control centre in Doha, Qatar.

"We don't comment o­n operational matters before they happen,'' she added.

In Kuwait City, a spokesperson for US and British forces refused to say whether any allied troops were moving into Iraq, minutes after the expiration of the deadline.

"We are not going to divulge that information,'' Major Chris Hughes told AFP .

He said he was "absolutely not'' going to reveal whether any of the coalition had started moving forward, nor whether any other units had started operations.

"As the president said, it's going to be at a time and place of our choosing,'' he added.