US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last night said an offensive more powerful than anything seen before was coming to Iraq and urged Saddam Hussein’s defenders to disobey orders and give up.

COALITION forces last night launched a sustained assault on southern Iraq in the first phase of their ground attack.

IRAQI state-run television yesterday aired a tape purporting to show Saddam Hussein addressing his people after the first US airstrikes, mocking US President George W Bush and calling the attacks a “shameful crime”.