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Pre-War War Has Already Started
While protesters protest and politicians politic, the U.S. has already begun a war of sorts with heavy bombing runs and commando incursions. A base in Northern Iraq is already being used. Expect the war to start before anti-war protesters can gather February 15th.....then Bush will count on \"wartime approval ratings\" for support.
Allied forces on spy mission inside Iraq
LONDON: British and US special forces have mounted a six-day covert mission into western Iraq to identify key targets in the event of a war, the Daily Telegraph said Saturday.
The report came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew back from a key meeting in Washington with George W. Bush, after which the US president said the issue of Iraqi disarmament would “come to a head in a matter of weeks, not months.”
British newspapers said that the two leaders had drawn up a timetable which could see US-led military action within six weeks if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein refused to give up weapons of mass destruction.
Blair said he doubted that Saddam would disarm voluntarily. “I certainly believe he is not going to comply because he has had years and years to do so,” the Telegraph quoted Blair as saying.
“But it will be a judgment for the international community as a whole. I may be proved wrong; he may change. But I personally am very sceptical,” Blair added.
Quoting defence sources, the Daily Telegraph said that a group of more than 100 men, consisting of the US Delta force and 35 men from Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS), flew into Iraq by Chinook helicopter from Jordan.
The operation was the first case of allied special forces operating inside territory controlled by the Iraqi government, according to the Telegraph, which did not say when the mission took place.
Britain’s defence ministry does not comment on the activities of special forces.
The Telegraph said that the mission was mounted after US intelligence reports that Scud missile launchers had been moved to the western Iraqi desert.
The special forces checked that the launchers were not false targets as part of an Iraqi deception plan. The paper added that the troops set off from a Jordanian air base east of Amman, flying along a corridor in Iraqi air defences opened up by allied attacks on a main air defence command post. —AFP
LONDON: British and US special forces have mounted a six-day covert mission into western Iraq to identify key targets in the event of a war, the Daily Telegraph said Saturday.
The report came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew back from a key meeting in Washington with George W. Bush, after which the US president said the issue of Iraqi disarmament would “come to a head in a matter of weeks, not months.”
British newspapers said that the two leaders had drawn up a timetable which could see US-led military action within six weeks if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein refused to give up weapons of mass destruction.
Blair said he doubted that Saddam would disarm voluntarily. “I certainly believe he is not going to comply because he has had years and years to do so,” the Telegraph quoted Blair as saying.
“But it will be a judgment for the international community as a whole. I may be proved wrong; he may change. But I personally am very sceptical,” Blair added.
Quoting defence sources, the Daily Telegraph said that a group of more than 100 men, consisting of the US Delta force and 35 men from Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS), flew into Iraq by Chinook helicopter from Jordan.
The operation was the first case of allied special forces operating inside territory controlled by the Iraqi government, according to the Telegraph, which did not say when the mission took place.
Britain’s defence ministry does not comment on the activities of special forces.
The Telegraph said that the mission was mounted after US intelligence reports that Scud missile launchers had been moved to the western Iraqi desert.
The special forces checked that the launchers were not false targets as part of an Iraqi deception plan. The paper added that the troops set off from a Jordanian air base east of Amman, flying along a corridor in Iraqi air defences opened up by allied attacks on a main air defence command post. —AFP
For more information:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...
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Today in Pakistan
Mon, Feb 3, 2003 6:46PM
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