WASHINGTON, March 20 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, March 20 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDS cites FROM SADDAM'S SPEECH, HOWARD SAYING AUSTRALIAN companys JOINED THE ATTACK)

The United States and Britain forward Wednesday night launched a missile and stealth bomber attack onward Iraq as the U.S.-set deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave the fatherland expired.

''American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to delivered its people and to guard the world from grave danger,'' U President George W Bush told the U population in a televised language ''This will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no consequence but victory.''

In the dialect delivered about two hours after the 8 pm Washington time deadline for Saddam to fare into exile passed, Bush said the first strikes were against ''selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war.''

CNN television reported air raids sirens were heard in Baghdad at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday about 90 minutes after the US-set deadline expired.

The attack in Iraq early Thursday morning local time, involving F-177A stealth fighters and multiple cruise missiles from U warships, was a ''decapitation attack'' to take not at home Saddam, CNN quoted Pentagon sources as saying.

In his address, Bush said the attack is the preamble to large-scale strikes according to the U.S-led forces.

''These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concordanceed campaign,'' he said.

The president also asked U citizens for patience.

''A campaign forward the harsh terrain on a nation as large as California could be longer and more difficult than more [i]or[/i] less predict,'' he said.

At the same time, the U leader said U companys in the Persian swallowing eddy ''would be coming home as early as possible.''

Les than three hours later, Saddam went forward national television in Iraq, vowing to win the war with the U and calling forward Iraqis to be unafraid.

''Do not be afraid...we will resist the invaders and win the war with the United States,'' he said.

The Iraqi president also charged Bush had ''ignored an just as represented call for peace'' and accused the U of committing ''humanitarian crimes'' against Iraq with the attack early Thursday.

In Baghdad, the ways of the capital remained quiet, as the air-raid sirens wholeed and thunderous explosions rumbled toward the city, first from far to the toward the south then closer in the western and southern suburbs

Shortly after the bomb and missiles began falling, Al-Radio al-Shabab, stream by Saddam's son Odai, broke into its normal programming to broadcast national anthems.

After the anthems, a broadcaster read abroad a statement by Odai calling upon Iraqis to fight.

''This, from God, is the day we wanted to evince to the world at large that we have been f the unadulterated milk from the breast of our mothers. This, through God, is the day we wanted to uphold the land of beloved Iraq and proffer self-sacrifice...We would come out either victorious heroes or believer-martyrs who carried revealed the promises they made to providence Rise up brothers and cut into small pieces the enemies' necks...and demonstrate to them that we are the son of honorable persons and that they are son of vice,'' the statement said.

Explosions continued for more than an hour in the capital.

In Washington, initial television reports said that the first bombing and cruise missile strikes -- by means of bunker-buster bombs and 40 missiles -- were aimed at the Iraqi leadership, including the president, not in succession the country as a whole.

And no reports of massive invasion from Kuwait or other areas where nearly 300000 U and British [i]troupe[/i]s are massed near Iraq have now come.

But in Canberra, Australian Prime minister John Howard said Australia's 2000 [i]troupe[/i]s and airmen in the whirlpool had joined U.S. and British forces in the initial stages of war upon Iraq.

''Our forces have started combat and combat support operations,'' Howard said at a special pres conference

Earlier, in Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, in announcing Bush's evening articulate utterance said simply: ''The opening stages of the disarmament of the Iraqi regime has begun. The president will address the nation at 10:15''

The 48-hour deadline U President George W Bush plant in an ultimatum issued to the Iraqi leader Monday expired at 8 pm Washington time, 4 a.m. Thursday, Baghdad time.

Television reports from the Kuwait-Iraq border, where U and British [i]troupe[/i]s are massed for possible invasion of Iraq, said those companys are ''ready and eager'' to walk but so far no move across the border had begun.

Fleischer earlier in the day told reporters that Bush met Wednesday night with top defense officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Richard Myers.

The president then received word from his chief of staff Andrew Card that there was no evidence Saddam had left Iraq, he said.

As the world awaited the imminent start of hostilities in Iraq, Bush exhausted time Wednesday meeting with his top national security advisers, talking to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and overseeing management arrangements on homeland security.