A massive car bomb blast outside the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad today killed up to 12 people, said rescuers.

The US-led coalition officially ordered Iraqis today to disarm by mid-June, part of a high-profile effort to get weapons off the streets and return public security to cities under American occupation.

IRAQI military and security organisations that supported Saddam Hussein's regime have been officially dissolved and a new defence force "representative of all Iraqis" will be set up to replace them, the US civil administrator announced yesterday.

The United States has declared air supremacy over all of Iraq, asserting its warplanes could fly anywhere with impunity, even though an Air Force attack plane was shot down near Baghdad.