Iraqi TV partly faded to black early today.

     U.S. and British forces used missiles and air strikes to hit an Iraqi television complex, knocking out satellite broadcasts -- but failed to shut down the domestic TV network.

     The signal from Iraqi Satellite TV, which broadcasts 24 hours a day outside Iraq, went off the air before dawn in Baghdad, according to monitors in Britain.

     But Iraq's state channel resumed broadcasts three hours after the coalition's dawn air raid. A Reuters correspondent in Iraq said the channel, which is not on the air overnight, began broadcasting verses from the Koran around 9 a.m. Baghdad time.

     With American prisoners of war paraded on Baghdad television broadcasts in recent days, coalition forces were primed to try to shutdown Iraqi broadcast capability, government sources told the Daily News.

     The message being sent out was "that they're winning the war. It's lies and propaganda," the sources said.

     Coalition intelligence officials had monitored the broadcasts trying to glean clues about the fate of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and other top officials.

     "They might provide insight into what's happening or not happening with the senior leadership," a government source said.

     Since the U.S.-led attack began, Iraq has aired a new video of Saddam almost every day in hopes of dispelling speculation he was zapped by coalition bombs and cruise missiles March 19.

     Coalition officials have noted that Saddam may have videotaped a variety of
messages beforehand.

     "Saddam could be alive or wounded, or he could have been killed. At this point it isn't clear," the government source said.

     In the latest tape, broadcast yesterday, Saddam instructed his subjects to attack invading forces from the front and the rear -- and even at rest.

     "Every one of you is a military leader. You Iraqis are in line with what God has ordered you to do, to cut their throats," he said.

     The negative effect of having allowed the dictator and his agents to use Iraqi TV to rally Ba'ath Party loyalists appears to have outweighed any intelligence benefit, some experts said.

     "I'm surprised [they] left it on so long," said Fred Rustmann, a former CIA counterterrorism chief. "It's part of Saddam's command and control."