US issues fresh threat

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.

Just a couple hours after Mr Rumsfeld’s first news conference since the start of the war in Iraq, more bombs struck Baghdad and ground operations had reportedly begun inside Iraq.

“What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict,” Mr Rumsfeld said. “It will be of a force and scope and scale beyond what has been seen before.”