US tries and fails to kill Saddam Hussein
10The Pentagon had received intelligence suggesting that Saddam was meeting his sons Uday and Qusay in a compound in an area called Dora Farms on the outskirts of Baghdad. The chance to kill the enemy leader before the war even officially began was too good an opportunity to pass up.
So at 4:42am Baghdad Time, two [F-117] Nighthawk stealth fighters dropped four 2000 pound GBU-27 “Bunker Busters” bombs on the compound, they also sent 40 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles to hit the site to…you know…make sure.
Unfortunately the intelligence proved faulty: The targeted compound didn’t exist and neither Saddam nor his sons were present. In fact no one and nothing of value to Saddam’s regime was destroyed and 1 civilian was killed and 14 more, including women and children were wounded.
Some might call that an inauspicious start to the war…