Allies launch ground assault

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

US artillery pounded Iraqi positions with self-propelled howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems and US Marines crossed into Iraq, Pentagon sources said.

Explosions also rocked Baghdad as allied forces stepped up their offensive against Saddam Hussein.

Britain and the US warned the Iraqi leader and his henchmen they faced a military onslaught of a “force and scope and scale” not seen before unless they surrendered their hold on power.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the coalition air strikes would continue to target the Iraqi leadership.

He said more attacks like the opening cruise missile salvo against a “senior leadership compound” on the outskirts of Baghdad were “likely”.

But at a Pentagon news conference Mr Rumsfeld said that even with hostilities underway there was still time for the Iraqi leadership to avert an all-out conflict.

He said: “The days of the Saddam Hussein regime are numbered. We continue to feel that there is no need for a broader conflict if the Iraqi leaders act to save themselves.

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

In the British House of Commons, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told MPs the coalition’s military plan had been deliberately crafted to achieve the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator.

The Iraqis responded to the attack by some 36 cruise missiles fired from US warships in the Gulf by launching at least four Scud missiles into northern Kuwait, where British and US forces are massing.

There were no reports that any managed to hit their targets but throughout the day US and British troops were repeatedly forced to scramble into their gas masks amid fears of a chemical weapons attack.

There were fears the Iraqis had started to set light to oilfields in a repeat of events from the Gulf War. There were reports of three or four oil wells burning in the south of the country.