Rumsfeld raises threat of chemical attacks

US INTELLIGENCE suspects that ground troops are increasingly likely to face chemical weapons as they approach Baghdad, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last night.

The Army’s 3rd Infantry Division is now about 50 miles of Baghdad, with the Medina armoured division of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard in its path. Elements of the 1st Marine Division are approaching the capital from a more easterly direction, and some analysts believe the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, now in southern Iraq, will join the battle for Baghdad.

Asked about reports that Republican Guard forces ringing Baghdad have been given authority to use chemical weapons, Mr Rumsfeld cited “scraps” of intelligence suggesting that the closer the 3rd Infantry gets to the capital, the greater the danger.

Mr Rumsfeld also said that Allied forces have now taken “in excess of 3,500 Iraqi prisoners”, and that humanitarian assistance is already being delivered. Nevertheless, after five days of ground combat, he sought to downplay expectations of a swift end to the war.

Iraq denies it has any chemical or biological weapons, but the Bush administration insists it has both, and is trying to gain nuclear weapons. The risk of Iraq using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or providing them to terrorist networks, was central to President George W Bush's justification for war.