The United States began its war against Iraq on Wednesday by bombing selected targets in the outskirts of Baghdad and President Bush pledged to use decisive force to remove President Saddam Hussein from power. In a brief televised address to the American people two hours after his final ultimatum to Saddam expired, Bush said: "At this hour 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.

"On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign."

The United States said the war was necessary because Iraq refused to give up deadly chemical and biological weapons and still maintained nuclear ambitions.

Baghdad denied having any such weapons and said it fully cooperated with U.N. weapons inspectors who spent almost four months in the country but found little evidence of the banned weapons. The inspectors left earlier this week.

After a crisis that has built for many months, the war began at around dawn, Iraqi time, 90 minutes after a U.S. ultimatum for Saddam to leave the country expired.

But instead of the awesome display of force predicted by military analysts to stun and shock Iraqi troops, the war began with a targeted strike, apparently based on intelligence information, aimed at a specific senior Iraqi target or targets, a U.S. government source said.

Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki, reporting from the center of Baghdad, said the first blasts seemed to come from the southern and eastern suburbs. Heavy plumes of black smoke billowed from the east after the same target appeared to have been hit three or four times. Several explosions later hit the city center.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) announced the start of war between the United States and Iraq (news - web sites) during a televised address from the Oval Office March 19, 2003. The United States said it had began its war against Iraq just minutes after several explosions were heard over Baghdad. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque