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April 8 — A U.S. Air Force warplane dropped four enormous bombs on a residential complex where “extremely reliable” intelligence indicated that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and one or both of his two sons were attending a meeting, senior administration officials told NBC News late Monday. The sources would not rule out the possibility that Saddam could have moved before the bomber struck, but they said it was likely that he and his sons were dead.
BASED ON information from an intelligence source on the ground in Baghdad, U.S. military officials were confident that Saddam and his son Qusay were attending a meeting in the neighborhood with other top Iraqi leaders, senior officials told NBC’s Carl Rochelle at the Pentagon and Andrea Mitchell at the State Department. They said they believed it was possible that Saddam’s other son, Uday, also was there.
The intelligence information was considered so reliable that it justified a massive attack in a residential area despite the administration’s declared emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, diplomatic sources told Mitchell.
Officials quickly called in an Air Force B-1B bomber to strike the location. The warplane dropped four GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition weapons, the 2,000-pound smart bombs known as “bunker busters,” leaving giant holes in the ground, the officials said.
Diplomatic officials and officials at the Pentagon told NBC News that they were highly confident that they killed everyone at the meeting, but they said it could take a day or two before they knew for sure.
April 8 — A U.S. Air Force warplane dropped four enormous bombs on a residential complex where “extremely reliable” intelligence indicated that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and one or both of his two sons were attending a meeting, senior administration officials told NBC News late Monday. The sources would not rule out the possibility that Saddam could have moved before the bomber struck, but they said it was likely that he and his sons were dead.
BASED ON information from an intelligence source on the ground in Baghdad, U.S. military officials were confident that Saddam and his son Qusay were attending a meeting in the neighborhood with other top Iraqi leaders, senior officials told NBC’s Carl Rochelle at the Pentagon and Andrea Mitchell at the State Department. They said they believed it was possible that Saddam’s other son, Uday, also was there.
The intelligence information was considered so reliable that it justified a massive attack in a residential area despite the administration’s declared emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, diplomatic sources told Mitchell.
Officials quickly called in an Air Force B-1B bomber to strike the location. The warplane dropped four GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition weapons, the 2,000-pound smart bombs known as “bunker busters,” leaving giant holes in the ground, the officials said.
Diplomatic officials and officials at the Pentagon told NBC News that they were highly confident that they killed everyone at the meeting, but they said it could take a day or two before they knew for sure.
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