ALLIED forces have engaged Iraqi troops in the first major ground assault of the Gulf War.
The US 3rd Infantry Division lit up the sky with Paladin self-propelled howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems.
Explosions inside Iraq could clearly be heard as more than 100 artillery shells were launched.
No fire was being returned.
American infantrymen who were between the howitzers and the Iraqi border cheered as the 155mm shells screamed overhead.
Division commander Major General Bufourd Blount had said the artillery barrage would signal the first phase of the ground assault.
Soldiers in the early night darkness watched the lights flashing in the sky.
Blount said today that the artillery shelling would take place along the entire Kuwait-Iraq border.
There were no reports from other parts of the sector but witnesses along the north-east corner of the frontier reported hearing heavy detonations.
20/03/2003
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