A warm welcome into the blogging world to my friend Ashwin.

That is not sun rising over the Baghdadi skyline. Instead, its an explosion at dawn that greeted the citizens of Baghdad who spent a sleepless night waiting for the inevitable.

WAR BEGINS!

President Bush ordered the beginning of a war on Iraq tonight, and his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said at about 9:45 p.m. Eastern time that American forces had begun to disarm Iraq and would depose Saddam Hussein. [NY Times registration required]

Here’s the report from Rediff on the same.

By the way, there are 11 Indians who have gone to Iraq to act as Human Shields against the American attack. Their reasons for doing so are quite misguided though!