Key symbols of Saddam’s regime targeted by US forces

THE US forces chose highly symbolic buildings as the focus for their first armoured raids into Baghdad yesterday, targeting the key symbols of Saddam Hussein’s regime in a dramatic show of military strength.

About 70 tanks and armoured personnel carriers drove into the Iraqi capital at dawn, reportedly seizing at least two presidential palaces and encircling the Information Ministry and the infamous Al-Rashid hotel.

All of the buildings targeted in the raids are key symbols of the Ba'ath Party Regime and each has already been heavily bombed by coalition forces during the military campaign.