Explosions Rock Baghdad, Set Fires

KUWAIT, March 21 — The United States launched a blistering series of bombing attacks on Baghdad and other Iraqi cities after dusk today, destroying entire rows of buildings in the capital and leaving parts of the city ablaze.

Raids occurred almost simultaneously in the northern cities of Kirkuk, Mosul and Tikrit. The air strikes represented a dramatic display of aerial firepower and a crucial milestone in America's invasion of Iraq.

Television images showed explosions that sent orange mushroom clouds billowing hundreds of feet into the air.

Pentagon officials call the aerial strategy "shock and awe," to reflect the goal of paralyzing the Iraqi military and compelling Saddam Hussein's regime to capitulate before American forces reach the gates of Baghdad.

The specific targets of the attacks were not immediately known. But a statement from the United States Central Command, which is in charge of the offensive, said that bombs had struck military command-and-control installations, government buildings and other targets in Baghdad and the three northern cities.

Raids on Thursday struck the Baghdad palace complex on the banks of the Tigris River, the office of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and a compound used by the younger son of Mr. Hussein, Qusay.

Soon after television images were beamed around the world, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said the massive bombing campaign was "as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed."

In southern Iraq, British and American troops continued their ground operations, pushing aggressively northward and reaching about 100 miles into Iraqi territory, according to Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, chief of British armed forces.

Other units stood on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra, which American and British planners hope will be the first major city to fall.

Earlier today, amphibious Marine units landed a few dozen kilometers south of Basra on the Al Faw peninsula, which juts out into the Persian Gulf between Kuwait and Iran. The marines quickly spread out in the area, securing oil pumping stations and pipelines but also suffering the first casualties of the war.

Eight British marines and four Americans were killed early today when their helicopter crashed in in northern Kuwait. The cause of the crash was not known. Separately, two American marines were killed in ground combat in southern Iraq, officials said.

One marine, from the First Marine Division, died "early this morning after leading his infantry platoon in a firefight to secure an oil-pumping station in southern Iraq," the military said in a statement. The other, from the First Marine Expeditionary Force, was killed in afternoon fighting "against enemy Iraqi forces near the port of Umm Qasr."

At a briefing in Washington, Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States intended to carry out the war against Mr. Hussein "on a scope and scale that makes clear to Iraqis that he and his regime are finished." American and British forces now control a "growing portion of the country," he said.

The United States and Britain gained control of key Iraqi logistics centers today, including two airstrips west of Baghdad that may be used as staging grounds for an attack on the capital.

In addition, Admiral Boyce confirmed that American and British troops had secured Umm Qasr, Iraq's only seaport. On Thursday, initial reports indicated, prematurely, that Umm Qasr was taken immediately after the ground war began at dusk that day, but officers said today that the seaport was not fully secured until midafternoon today.

American Marines took at least 250 Iraqi prisoners near Umm Qasr, a British commander, Col. Steve Cox, said.

Marines lowered the Iraqi flag and raised the American flag over the seaport, Reuters reported. The American flag was then taken down, in line with orders that invading troops should avoid displaying flags in the fashion of an occupying or conquering army.

Control of Umm Qasr will allow the United States and Britain to ship military supplies, food and humanitarian aid directly into Iraq.

Hundreds of Iraqis surrendered to American and British troops today, Admiral Boyce said.

The campaign on the Al Faw peninsula was designed to prevent the Iraqi government from destroying the country's oil infrastructure, military officials said.

By midday today, as many as 30 oil wells were on fire, according to Britain's defense secretary, Geoff Hoon. The fires appeared to be the cause of a black haze that hovered over Kuwait City and the surrounding areas early in the day. The smoke dissipated as the day wore on.

In Baghdad, Iraq's information minister said that one of Mr. Hussein's homes was hit in a strike at dawn Thursday but that no one had been hurt.

"They rocketed the residence of his household," said the information minister, Mohammed Sa'eed Sahhaf, during a televised news conference today. "But thank God, they are all safe."

The official Iraqi News Agency said 37 people were injured in attacks Thursday night, though that could not be confirmed. And there was no immediate way of knowing how many casualties resulted from today's more intense bombing.

At the same news conference today, another senior Iraqi official, Mahmoud Diab Ahmed, denied reports of an American-led advance into Iraq and said that television images of lines of Iraqis surrendering were fabricated. "Those are not Iraqi soldiers at all," he said. "Where did they bring them from?"

The two officials sought to rebut other Western news reports, including the cause of the crash of the United States Marine helicopter that killed four Americans and eight Britons. Mr. Sahhaf told reporters that the helicopter had been shot down. "They keep saying that this was an accident," he said. "This wasn't an accident. We have shot them down."

Mr. Hoon rejected this, saying the crash "was not the result of enemy action."

The Iraqi claim appeared dubious given the reported site of the wrecked helicopter, about nine miles inside Kuwait. The British government said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

A Royal Marines spokesman, Lt. Col. Ben Curry, said the crash occurred as troops were being deployed to seize oil fields on the Al Faw peninsula.

Air raid sirens continued to sound sporadically in Kuwait today, and one Iraqi missile was intercepted by Patriot batteries based in the city.

The interception followed a series of attempted Iraqi missile strikes on Thursday. Initial reports said they were Scuds, which Iraq is banned from possessing. Iraq's minister of information called the accusation "ridiculous."

Despite nervousness at further missile strikes in Kuwait, there was at least one sign that Kuwaitis remained strongly in support of the American and British invasion of Iraq. The Kuwait Times newspaper ran a banner headline today that read: "It's War at Last."