The explosions started when I was sitting in the al-Fanar café discussing the war with a young Irish peace activist.
The "human shields" from around the world rushed into a back room away from the plate-glass windows as flashing red tracer fire and white explosions of anti-aircraft artillery filled the sky.
When I reached my own hotel a few hundred metres away, a crowd had formed in the lobby and under the portico to watch the explosions.
The morning attack heralding the start of the war took place an hour and a quarter after President George Bush's ultimatum to President Saddam Hussein to leave the country had expired.
Air-raid sirens sounded across Baghdad for half-an-hour and anti-aircraft artillery fired into the air.
As a muezzin chanted dawn prayer calls, President Saddam went on television. "The insane Bush does not care about your calls for peace and he has started a war against Iraq," he told his people.
To prove that the broadcast had not been recorded before the outbreak of war, the Iraqi leader noted that he was speaking "at prayer time on the 20th of March".
In rhetoric reminiscent of his 1991 pledge to fight "the mother of all battles", President Saddam said that in the name of the Iraqi people and leadership, he pledged to "resist the invaders". Promising victory, he said: "Your enemies will go to hell and will be shamed. God willing."
Wearing glasses and looking strained, he read from a notebook in a strongly literary, Islamic tone: "Use your swords. Do not be afraid. Don't fear anybody . . . and victory will be your witness."
He ended the broadcast by saying: "Long live Iraq. Long live Palestine. Long live the Arab Nation."
The Information Minister, Mr Mohamed Said al-Sahaf, announced that an "assassination attempt" against the Iraqi president had failed. Referring repeatedly to "little Bush", he said that the Americans had destroyed two buildings belonging to the customs authority near the Jordanian border, killing a civilian and wounding several others.
A taxi-driver in Baghdad reported that one of his relatives had been "pulverised in his car" by a missile near Rotba in western Iraq.
Mr al-Sahaf said that a small compound belonging to Iraqi television and radio in western Iraq had also been destroyed. He did not elaborate on the "two civilian places on the perimeter of Baghdad" where the US tried to kill President Saddam other than to say that they were not shelters.
Asked about reports that Iraq had fired three Scud missiles with conventional warheads at Kuwait around noon, Mr al-Sahaf did not know what was fired, but he said Iraq had no Scuds. The Kuwaitis said that one of the weapons was shot down by a Patriot missile.
During the day, residents of the capital seemed to take heart from the fact that the opening hours of the bombardment were far less severe than had been expected.
And then it began again last night.