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Richard Downes reports from Baghdad on the latest wave of attacks

The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has been shaken by a series of huge explosions on the third night of military strikes by American and British forces.

At least 15 cruise missiles or laser-guided bombs hit the city in two waves at around 0130 GMT.

Three of them fell in a single government complex in the centre of the city. The explosions were punctuated by heavy anti-aircraft fire.

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Eye-witnesses spoke of fireballs and thick plumes of smoke rising from buildings.

Shortly after the explosions, mosques broadcast their first call to prayer, at the start of what is the first day in the holy month of Ramadan.

On Friday, in his first reponse to the continued onslaught, the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, delivered a defiant message on Iraqi television.

In a recorded address and wearing military uniform, he said: "By God we will not compromise.

"Iraq will be victorious. God damn them. Shame will be their fate, those followers of Satan and evil."

The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, also denounced the attacks as criminal aggression against the whole international community.

Intense bombing

United States Government officials say that, in the first two nights of air strikes, more Cruise missiles were fired than during the entire Gulf War.

American defence officials say as many as 75 sites in Iraq have been hit since Operation Desert Fox began on Wednesday.

Saddam Hussein wore a bullet-proof vest for his TV address

The Pentagon said the sites included Iraq's defence systems, facilities and bases of the Republican Guard and airfields across the country.

The American Defence Secretary, William Cohen, said the Basra oil refinery - Iraq's third largest - had been attacked because it was being used to smuggle oil in violation of UN sanctions.

But officials refused to comment on speculation that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Saturday, would force an end to air strikes.

'Much more to do'

Earlier, UK Defence Secretary George Robertson confirmed air strikes would continue until Saddam Hussein's ability to build and use weapons of mass destruction has been "sufficiently damaged".

"There is so much more to do," he told reporters at a Ministry of Defence briefing in London.

Officials then showed video clips taken by British Tornado bombers using laser guided weapons to target a series of Iraqi military installations.

Mr Robertson said an airfield south-west of Baghdad, where the Iraqi president was developing an unmanned plane to carry biological weapons, was also targeted.

Iraqis resigned to strikes

RAF footage of air strikes, as seen from Tornado bombers

A BBC correspondent in the Baghdad, Jeremy Cooke, said that as many Iraqis attended Friday prayers at the city's mosques, there was a sense of "fatality" amongst the people.

The Iraqi authorities say that so far 25 people are confirmed dead as a result of strikes on Baghdad. Figures for the rest of the country are not yet available.

An RAF target, seconds from destruction

Targets close to Baghdad city centre - an area where ministries and other government departments are concentrated - bore the brunt of Thursday night's assault. One hospital suffered blast damage, with many windows blown out.

The Iraqi Minister of Health, Umid Midhat Mubarak, visited a hospital on Friday. He told the BBC that the city hospitals, which are suffering severe shortages after years of sanctions, were finding it hard to cope with the casualties.

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The Iraqi Ministry of Information said earlier that American war planes have been showering the south of the country with leaflets, urging people to rise up against the government of Saddam Hussein.