The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, could not say whether the Iraqi leaders were killed in Monday's attack.

In As Saliyah, Qatar, a spokesman for the Central Command confirmed the strike, saying four satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs were dropped on the target.

"We confirm that a target of the (Iraqi) regime was hit very hard," the spokesman said, adding that the attack had come after a US intelligence report suggested that "senior Iraqi officials" were in a building in the Al-Mansur area of the city.

"We just don't know who might have been killed," the official in Washington said.

"Obviously we hope that some part of the leadership was taken out of action, but we don't know at this point who might have been there at the time the ordnance arrived."

"There was some intelligence that came in this morning suggesting a number of Iraqi officials, intelligence officials and possibly Saddam and his two sons, were gathered at some building in Baghdad, I don't have the location," the official said.

"Central Command had aircraft in the air who were given the coordinates, they dropped some ordnance on the building and destroyed it," the official added.

He said the building was not a bunker.

Earlier Monday in Baghdad, witnesses reported that at least 14 civilians were killed when a bomb crashed into a residential neighborhood in the Iraqi capital.

The explosion left a crater eight meters (26 feet) deep and 15 meters wide and destroyed four houses off Ramadan 14th, a main commercial artery in the al-Mansur area, they said.

The bombardment hit at about 3 pm local time (1100 GMT). Initial reports said the area had been hit by a missile.

Shattered glass and concrete covered the sidewalk, notably in front of the al-Sa'ah restaurant where Saddam Hussein made a defiant public appearance Friday after US troops launched an attack on Saddam International Airport southwest of the capital.

Monday's strike marked the second time US forces struck a target where the Iraqi leader was believed to be staying based on intelligence information.

On the war's opening night on March 20, US F-117 stealth fighters struck a Baghdad compound where Saddam and several senior members of his inner circle were believed to be gathered.

US President George W. Bush ordered that strike on short notice after being advised by CIA Director Tenet of intelligence on Saddam's whereabouts.

After several weeks of uncertainty, US intelligence concluded that the Iraqi leader had survived the March 20 strike.

The Washington Times meanwhile reported that the building targeted in Monday's raid was used by the Iraqi intelligence service, Mukhabarat, and was located in the same neighborhood where Saddam made a highly publicized walkabout Friday when he was mobbed by cheering supporters.

The daily quoted a military source as saying Iraqi intelligence officials might have picked the spot for Monday's gathering because they did not believe US forces would bomb a commercial block.

SPACE.WIRE