- BRITAIN and America yesterday spelt out the military objectives and targets
of an attack on Iraq, amid growing signs that the countries could be at
war next week.
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- The ultimate aim would be to ensure that
President Saddam Hussein could never recreate his weapons of mass destruction
- and the Pentagon believes that that could be achieved by a week of bombing.
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- American pilots have been practising
bombing raids on Iraq for three months and British forces in the Gulf are
ready to strike if necessary. General Sir Charles Guthrie, Chief of the
Defence Staff, issued an unusual statement yesterday saying that he had
advised the Cabinet on the military options and that his advice had been
followed.
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- Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General,
met the five permanent members of the Security Council last night to decide
whether to make a final diplomatic mission to Baghdad, but they failed
to agree a compromise package for him to put to Saddam and although they
are expected to meet again today, military action still seemed likely.
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- President Clinton - who is receiving
daily briefings on Saddam from the Director of the CIA - will address America
from the Pentagon today, while in Britain, officials will consider meeting
to activate the special Cobra cabinet committee that deals with emergency
and terrorist situations.
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- Amid further signs that Operation Desert
Thunder could be only days away, steel-reinforced "tank trap"
blocks were being installed around the American Embassy in London to deter
terrorists. And the Foreign Office has made contingency plans to evacuate
British nationals, including some embassy staff, from the Middle East.
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- Mr Clinton will make his broadcast after
being briefed on the final targets: the Iraqi air defence network; buildings
and bunkers linked with the production of chemical and biological weapons;
support facilities for poison gas production - including their protective
Republican Guard units; and any military forces Saddam might use against
neighbouring states.
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- A Ministry of Defence official said that
the targeting plans - which run to hundrds of pages - had been "very
carefully" designed to avoid any release of chemical or biological
agents into the atmosphere, although it is estimated that up to 1,500 Iraqis
might be killed in air raids.
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- The military objectives would not be
to destroy Iraq or change the frontiers, but to diminish significantly
Saddam's military capability, including his weapons of mass destruction,
and to prevent him recreating such weapons in the future. The most important
aim would be to force him to agree to total compliance with UN resolutions
so that weapons inspectors could carry out their work unfettered.
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- British defence intelligence chiefs have
told the Government that Saddam still has a few biological and chemical
warheads ready for installing on ballistic missiles - a "hardening
up" of the assessment last November.
-
- Then, the Cabinet Office's Joint Intelligence
Committee said that there was only a "possibility" that he had
such weapons. But now the Ministry of Defence's intelligence department
is convinced that he has hidden warheads containing anthrax and other toxic
materials and that he has the capability of accelerating production of
such weapons.
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- Ministry officials said yesterday that
there was evidence that Iraqi agents were scouring the world to buy efficient
commercial delivery systems for biological weapons - such as advanced crop
spraying equipment. They were believed to have failed in that objective
so far, but a close watch was being maintained.
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- At the same time Porton Down, the chemical
and biological defence agency in Wiltshire, produced a dossier on the relative
toxicity of Saddam's weapons, including a warning that if he were to achieve
a 100 per cent efficient delivery system, one teaspoonful of anthrax could
kill 100 million people. Inhalation would cause a severe pneumonia-like
illness, followed by death within five days.
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- At the moment, Saddam is believed to
have about ten extended Scud ballistic missiles that could probably launch
a biological or chemical warhead on a target up to 400 miles away. However,
defence intelligence chiefs have told the Government that they do not believe
Saddam would launch such an attack. For one reason, it would provide proof
that he possessed weapons of mass destruction - which he has denied - and
for another, it would lay Iraq open to a massive American attack.
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- The intelligence chiefs said that of
the "remote possibilities" that Saddam might turn to non-conventional
weapons, the terrorist option was the most likely.
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- RAF crews preparing for possible air
raids over Iraq have not been vaccinated against biological or chemical
warfare, although anti-nerve gas tablets and anthrax vaccine have been
sent to the Gulf. MoD sources said that RAF aircraft had special filtration
systems that would trap anthrax spores or nerve agents and prevent them
getting into the pilots' air supply.
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