Rumsfeld: Allies took more than 3,500 POWs

US and allied forces have now taken in ”excess of 3,500 Iraqi prisoners,” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said tonight.

At a Pentagon briefing, Rumsfeld said humanitarian assistance “food, water and medicine” is already being delivered. Still, after five days of ground combat, he sought to minimise expectations of a swift end to the war

“We’re still, needless to say, much closer to the beginning than the end,” Rumsfeld said.