JUST days before US-led forces invaded Iraq, officials claiming to speak for a frantic Iraqi regime made a last-ditch effort to avert the war, but US officials rebuffed the overture, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Reports of their deaths may be greatly exaggerated. Given the dodgy quality of the information that the Americans and the British have been indoctrinating the rest of the world with, there is still a good chance that Qusay and Uday — not to mention the 14 year-old boy — are alive and well.

NORTH of Baghdad yesterday, drivers climbed onto yellow bulldozers to pulverise missiles and warheads. To the south, workers donned welding gear and used cutting torches to dismember giant metal casting chambers.

WITH almost 200,000 US and British troops massed around it, the government of Saddam Hussein prepared Iraqis for war yesterday, equipping families with extra food and inviting citizens to help “inflict defeat on the evil aggressors.”