In Washington, a US official said warplanes Monday bombed a building in Baghdad where intelligence information indicated that Iraqi leaders including Saddam and his sons may have been staying.

"Obviously we hope that some part of the leadership was taken out of action," said the anonymous official in Washington. Witnesses in the Iraqi capital reported that at least 14 civilians were killed in the bombing.

USA Today said "US warplanes dropped four 2,000-pound, satellite-guided bombs ... 'bunker-buster' bombs"' on the target.

The Washington Times said the bombs hit the al Saa restaurant in the al-Mansur residential area, where a "sensitive intelligence source" reported Saddam and Baath Party leaders were meeting with some 30 intelligence officials "behind or beneath the restaurant."

The al-Mansur district is where Saddam allegedly appeared in public on Friday, the daily said, adding that the television images helped locate the Iraqi president.

Iraqi officials may have mistakenly believed US forces in the area would not dare attack a popular neighborhood to avoid killing civilians, the daily added.

"If he was in that facility, he would most likely be dead," a US official told The Los Angeles Times, adding that the intelligence report was "the first (tip) that was fairly specific" about Saddam's whereabouts since the start of the war.

The bombing targe "was not a government facility," said the Los Angeles Times, adding that it was "just out in the community somewhere."

The New York times and USA Today simply identified the target in Baghdad as a home.

USA Today said the home also contained a restaurant where Saddam, 20 members of his Baath Party and at least his son Qusay were meeting.

The daily said US officials received "reliable tips from three spies in Baghdad, as well as satellite intercepts of communications," and that the target had been under US intelligence surveillance for several days.

The New York Times said the strike took place only 45 minutes after the information was received.

USA Today quotes one source as saying "intelligence officials believe that Saddam's other son, Uday, was killed in an airstrike on March 19," when President George W. Bush approved the bombing of a Baghdad compound where Saddam and his sons were believed to be staying.

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