Iraqi Satellite Television Knocked off the Air by Allied Strikes in Baghdad
Published: Mar 26, 2003
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U.S. forces pounded targets in the Iraqi capital overnight with a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles, a Navy spokesman said. Warships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea fired at least 40 Tomahawks, said Lt. Cmdr. Mike Brown. The air strikes also included bombing runs by warplanes.
The attacks targeted not only Iraqi television but also government communications and satellite links at several sites in the capital, U.S. military officials said. Smoke was seen next to the information ministry and the Iraqi TV building.
"These targets are key regime command-and-control assets," said Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.
Iraqi Satellite TV, which broadcasts 24 hours a day outside Iraq, went off the air around 4:30 a.m. after the attack on the TV building. It went back on the air about eight hours later.
Iraq's domestic state-run television service, which does not broadcast around the clock and was not on the air at the time, resumed broadcasting Wednesday morning as scheduled.
However, there was no trace of Al-Shabab television, the station owned by Saddam Hussein's son Odai. That station is normally transmitted from the state television building.
Meanwhile, a howling sandstorm that had cast a yellow haze over Baghdad eased Wednesday morning as U.S.-led troops lay within 50 miles of the capital, setting up a seemingly inevitable fight for control of the city of 5 million people. The sandstorm had slowed the allies' advance to a crawl.
"We are determined to defend our capital after what we have seen of our brothers' resistance in the south," Baghdad truck driver Ahmed Falah said. "The whole world is with us now, even the weather, because the sandstorm has brought benefits to us. They are the storms of God."
The city has also been shrouded with smoke from fuel fires set by Baghdad authorities to obscure military targets. Some resident have been busy digging or expanding defensive trenches, some of them the courtyard of the Iraq museum, home to priceless archaeological treasures.
Television, like state radio, constantly played patriotic songs and messages of support from Iraqis for Saddam Hussein.
AP-ES-03-26-03 0554EST
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