The United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has confirmed the massive aerial bombardment of Iraq has begun.
As the bombardment escalated over Baghdad Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed the full scale aerial assault was underway.
"And a few minutes ago the air war in Iraq began," he said.
He says the Iraqi leadership is losing already losing control.
"The confusion of Iraqi officials is growing, their ability to see what is happening on the battlefield, to communicate with their forces and to control their country is slipping away," he said.
"They're beginning to realise I suspect that the regime is history."
Mr Rumsfeld again warned Iraqi troops against destroying oil infratructure or using chemical and biological weapons.
Goals of war
Mr Donald Rumsfeld has listed eight goals for the US-led invasion of Iraq.
"Coalition military operations are focused on achieving several specific objectives," he said at a Pentagon news conference, listing the goals as:
To end the regime of Saddam Hussein by striking with force on a scope and scale that makes clear to Iraqis that he and his regime are finished To identify, isolate and eventually eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, production capabilities and distribution networks To search for, capture, drive out terrorists who have found safe harbor in Iraq To collect such intelligence as we can find related to terrorist networks in Iraq and beyond To collect such intelligence as we can find related to the global network of illicit weapons of mass destruction activity To end sanctions and to immediately deliver humanitarian relief, food and medicine to the displaced and to the many needy Iraqi citizens To secure Iraq's oil fields and resources, which belong to the Iraqi people, and which they will need to develop their country after decades of neglect by the Iraqi regime To help the Iraqi people create the conditions for a rapid transition to a representative self-government that is not a threat to its neighbors and is committed to ensuring the territorial integrity of that country.
