Rumsfeld Says Bigger U.S. Attack Coming to Iraq
1 hour, 17 minutes ago
By Randall Mikkelsen and Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday a new offensive more powerful than anything seen before was coming to Iraq (news - web sites) and urged Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s defenders to disobey orders and give up.
Just a couple hours after Rumsfeld's first news conference since the start of the war in Iraq, more bombs struck Baghdad and ground operations were reported begun inside Iraq.
"What will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict," Rumsfeld said. "It will be of a force and scope and scale that has been beyond what has been seen before."
Following the opening salvo nearly 14 hours before, Rumsfeld said a senior Iraqi leadership compound was struck and other officials said the main target was Saddam.
Rumsfeld said a damage assessment, including whether Saddam had been hit, was being conducted by the Pentagon (news - web sites) and made it clear more such targeting of the Iraqi leadership was coming.
"That was the first," he said. "It will likely not be the last."
President Bush (news - web sites) was to meet in the afternoon with his Cabinet on the war and receive updates on the first offensive in his new policy of striking in advance enemies deemed to be a threat to the United States.
Congress struggled to smooth over bitter partisan conflicts to unite behind the war, despite many Democrats' misgivings that it is premature or unnecessary. Both houses of Congress planned to take up resolutions supporting the troops and Bush.
"We may have had differences of opinion about what brought us to this point, but the president is the commander in chief and today, we unite behind him as well," said Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, whose criticism of Bush's diplomacy brought angry response from Republican lawmakers.
In the face of the coming assault, Rumsfeld told Iraqi citizens to stay in their homes away from military targets and listen to radio stations for instructions from the Americans and their allies.
He also told the Iraqi military to disobey orders, not attack civilians or destroy the nation's oil fields.
"Following such orders would be to commit crimes against the Iraqi people," Rumsfeld said. "See those orders for what they are, the last desperate gasp of a dying regime."
Rumsfeld said the United States had indications Iraq may have set fire to three or four oil wells in the south of the country. He appealed to Iraqis not to burn the riches of their country.
'DAYS ARE NUMBERED'
"The days of the Saddam Hussein regime are numbered," Rumsfeld said.
Saddam appeared on television after the first bombings to defiantly rally his people. But a senior U.S. administration official said it was not clear whether the appearance was live or taped, or made by one of a number of Saddam doubles.
A U.S. official said there was "some information" Saddam may have been meeting with others on the outskirts of Baghdad. Asked if Saddam was the target of the first strikes, a British military official said: "Yes."
Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, said he was told intelligence officials do think some of the Iraqi military leadership were killed in the bombing.
The United States remained on heightened alert against acts of retaliation.
But with the war under way, the FBI (news - web sites) did begin interviewing thousands of Iraqis in an effort to get information about possible attacks in the United States. The tactic drew criticism from Arab-American and civil liberties groups.
Nearly 300,000 U.S. and British troops were poised in the Gulf, more than 150,000 of them in northern Kuwait waiting for orders to sweep into Iraq.
Experts expect heavy bombing and cruise missile strikes involving as many as 1,000 U.S. and British warplanes and more than 80 warships in the region.
The United States, supported militarily by Britain and Australia, accuses Saddam of harboring chemical and biological weapons which it could provide to groups like al Qaeda.
Iraq denies having such weapons. Leading nations including France, Russia, Germany and China opposed military action in favor of continued U.N. arms inspections.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Bush wanted to thank countries that are giving support to the U.S.-led effort. He said the number was growing and noted the Turkish parliament had voted to grant overflight rights to the United States.
But when asked if that mean the White House would revise an economic aid package that fell apart when Turkey failed to allow 62,000 U.S. troops into its country, he said no.
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