- British and American warplanes have bombed Iraq's most
important air intelligence headquarters.
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- The dramatic escalation is seen as the first stage of
war with Iraq.
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- President Bush insisted yesterday that the world does
not need proof that Saddam Hussein is building nuclear weapons before taking
action.
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- "We must anticipate," he said. "The most
dangerous thing would be to find out they had a nuclear weapon after they
developed one."
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- The attack on buildings and bunkers at Tallil Airbase,
160 miles south-east of Baghdad, marked a change in tactics.
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- Command and communications links in Saddam's air defence
system, and military airfields, are now being methodically targeted instead
of guns and mobile radars.
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- US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington
yesterday: "I directed it. I don't like the idea of our planes being
shot at.
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- "The idea that our planes go out and get shot at
with impunity bothers me."
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- Mr Rumsfeld admitted for the first time that the US and
Britain have no "smoking gun" proof that Saddam has weapons of
mass destruction.
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- "There isn't a single smoking gun," he said.
"If we waited for a smoking gun in this instance we would find it
after the fact."
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- Air attack site Tallil is home to Iraq's key Southern
Sector Operations Centre from where all air defences south of Baghdad are
co-ordinated.
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- Bombers, including four RAF Tornado GR4s, used precision-guided
weapons in the raids involving a total of 20 planes. Destroying Saddam's
air defences would be crucial for any land invasion.
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- Military expert Major Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's
World Armies, said last night: "There is no doubt in my mind that
the first stage of war with Iraq has quietly begun.
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- "Knocking out Tallil will be of vital strategic
interest to an invading force. I believe we will see a lot more raids like
this one until the coalition are sure they can operate over southern Iraq
safely."
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- It was the fifth coalition air strike on Iraqi military
targets this month, and the 15th since August 5.
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- All have been made under cover of the UN mandate to enforce
the northern and southern no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War.
But the frequency of the attacks has shot up.
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- Marine Corps General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the
US military Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "The recent strikes have
degraded the air defence capabilities of Iraq."
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- Mr Rumsfeld said he could not say whether the change
of tactics has left Iraq less capable of defending itself against attacks
to topple Saddam.
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- He added: "Whether they are going to be net stronger
or weaker in the event anything were to occur in the future is a function
of how fast they are able to rebuild, replace and replenish that capability."
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- Asked when he had ordered the switch of tactics, he snapped:
"Less than a year and more than a week. Less than six months and more
than a month."
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- Mr Bush cranked up the war talk in a speech in Iowa.
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- The President warned that with or without the United
Nations, "if Iraq's regime continues to defy us and the world, the
United States will move deliberately yet decisively to hold Iraq to account."
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- Baghdad's outer air defence ring - which the Tallil base
helps to co-ordinate - has seen the largest concentration of bombing raids
in recent weeks.
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- British and US bombers appear to be clearing a wide path
to the Iraqi capital from Kuwait and the Persian Gulf.
-
- There have also been recent reports that US Special Forces
entered northern Iraq as long ago as February to begin preparations for
war.
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- Operating freely in the semi-autonomous zone controlled
by the Kurds, the troops are believed to be constructing key landing zones
and airstrips to support a US-led invasion.
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- The RAF has begun an exercise at St Mawgan, Cornwall,
to practise setting up a remote air base.
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- The drill involves warplanes and more than 1,500 personnel.
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- An RAF spokesman said the exercise had been planned for
a long time and there were no orders to have personnel prepare for further
deployment.
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- http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12204872&method=full&siteid=50143
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