With Saddam Hussein defying the American demand to quit his homeland, thousands of US and British troops, armoured vehicles and trucks advanced toward the Iraqi border today, positioning themselves to invade on short notice.

'Coalition' forces stood poised to strike at Saddam Hussein’s regime today as they moved up to the Iraqi border.

Two British UN observers were threatened at gun point by a Kuwaiti soldier at a military checkpoint on the Iraqi border today.

The US Army recently doubled the size of its war stocks in Kuwait to accommodate a little-noticed expansion of armoured forces at a base near the Iraqi border, officials said.

The US army recently moved weaponry and war supplies from Qatar to a base near the Iraqi border in Kuwait to check their condition and test procedures that would be used in the event President Bush orders preparations for war.

Three thousand US soldiers are conducting war games in the desert near the Iraqi border, sending a message to Baghdad that Washington remains committed to defending Kuwait despite its war in Afghanistan.