'Coalition' forces poised to strike

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

With final preparations underway for an attack within hours, US troops were reported to have entered the demilitarised zone separating Iraq and Kuwait.

As the march to war quickened, activity at a British airbase suggested that US B-52s were being made ready for an aerial assault.

With the world waiting for war to erupt, Tony Blair sought to switch attention to post-Saddam Iraq.

He led MPs in wishing British troops well in the coming conflict and promised that the British government would make sure funds were available for post-war reconstruction of the country.

On the ground in the Gulf region, around 300,000 US and British troops were awaiting the order to attack as the months of failed diplomacy and brinkmanship finally came to an end.

Intelligence reports from the Pentagon indicate troops on the ground could face a last-ditch chemical weapons assault from Saddam Hussein’s desperate regime.

Pentagon officials in Washington have warned that the Iraqi leader has given field-level commanders the authority to use chemical weapons on their own initiative without further orders from Baghdad.

“We continue to receive reports supporting the assertion that there is a high risk the Iraqi regime would use chemical weapons at some point during any conflict,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Allied troops massed on the Kuwaiti border awaiting the order to invade Iraq have been ordered to begin taking their anti-nerve agent tablets.

The tablets – called Naps, short for Nerve Agent Pre-treatment Set – build up the body’s resistance to nerve agents and boost the effectiveness of emergency injections given after a victim is contaminated.

But chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said he does not believe Saddam’s government will use chemical or biological weapons, even as a last resort, because it would turn world opinion in favour of the US.

President Bush has given Saddam and his two sons until 1am Irish time to flee Iraq or face war.

But officials in Washington have not ruled out an attack before then, particularly since the Iraqi regime has flatly rejected Bush’s ultimatum, declaring that Iraq did not choose its leaders “by decree from Washington, London or Tel Aviv”.