AS sirens sounded around the Iraqi capital at dusk, a smiling bride and her groom walked into a city centre hotel for their reception.

Hakim Hamza later celebrated his wedding to Alia Jawad by dancing in the street to trumpets and a beating drum. ''We challenge America. We are the steadfast Iraqi people,'' he said.

At a cafe in Kasra district, dominoes slapped on tables.

''If they strike again tonight we won't leave the coffee shop. We'll just carry on playing,'' said Sarmad Abdel-Khaleq.

His friend Khalil Ibrahim, referring to the 1991 Gulf war over Kuwait, said: ''In 1991 we met every day. Why should we stop now if they hit us for a few days?

''Everyone has to die, and you can't die twice.''

The nonchalance of many Iraqis about the attacks was increased by the limited nature of the first night of strikes.

Although Iraqi officials said some civilians had been killed or injured, there were few signs when dawn broke yesterday of wide-scale damage.

Last night air raid warnings sounded four times in as many hours by 10pm local time before a series of explosions shook the centre of the city. Heavy barrages of anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky.

In an earlier half-hour drive around Baghdad streets, still lit, two other wedding parties passed in convoys of hooting cars.

Traffic was lighter than usual in the smart Mansour district. Thursday evening is the traditional time for festivities, but only a handful of pedestrians walked past mainly shuttered shops.

Shops in many other districts were still open and some appeared to be doing reasonable business. There was little visible sign of increased security measures.

The world's one billion Muslims begin the fasting month of Ramadan this weekend, during which they abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sex from dawn to dusk as an act of sacrifice and purification.

Out of deference to allies in the Muslim world, President Bill Clinton said he launched his air and missile attacks on Iraq so as not to coincide with the beginning of Ramadan.

The religious fast - which marks God's revelation of the Koran, Islam's holy book, to the Prophet Mohammed some 1400 years ago - begins tomorrow or Sunday, depending on the sighting of the moon.

Most clerics expect Ramadan to begin on Sunday in Iraq, and also in most of the 53 member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which represents the world's Muslim populace.

Since Ramadan's timing is based on the lunar calendar - shorter than its Western Gregorian equivalent - its dates change each year.

Ramadan lasts 29 or 30 days, again depending on the sighting of the crescent moon.

The fast will end with the three-day feast of Eid al-Fitr, one of the Muslim world's biggest holidays.

Muslim countries begin and end Ramadan with a difference of a day because they rely on their own clerics' sighting of the moon. Throughout the month, extended families gather at sunset, awaiting the blast of a cannon or the start of the evening prayer that allows them to break their fast.