Britain sends naval force as war preparations step up

LONDON - Britain yesterday ordered a naval taskforce and 3000 Royal Marines to head towards the Gulf and mobilised 1500 reserve soldiers for possible war with Iraq.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the initial call-up was for 1500 soldiers, with more to come. A "significant" force of Royal Navy vessels and Royal Marines would be sent to the Mediterranean to train for possible action.

A Ministry of Defence official said about 3000 Marines would be on the ships, which include an aircraft carrier and three destroyers.

Tens of thousands of US combat troops are already heading for the Gulf in a mobilisation that will put 200,000 Americans in the region by the end of February, and a US battle staff has begun assembling at Camp As Sayliyah, in Qatar.

A senior official said the movement to the Gulf area of Central Command battle planners, which began this week, did not mean war with Iraq was imminent or inevitable. The move was a necessary step to prepare the military in case President George W. Bush gave the go-ahead to disarm Iraq by force.

Jim Wilkinson, the Central Command director of strategic communications, confirmed the decision to send the planners to Qatar, but declined to provide details on when they would arrive or in what numbers.

France, which had resisted Washington's tough line, gave its clearest sign yet that it would join military action if Baghdad does not eliminate weapons programmes as the United Nations demands.

President Jacques Chirac told French troops yesterday to be prepared for deployment.

Turkey - a crucial staging point - had opened its skies to US spy planes for reconnaissance flights over Iraq, a private Turkish television station reported. Two U-2 planes immediately took off from Germany for a reconnaissance flight over Iraq, NTV said.

Iraq maintains that it has no banned weapons and so far has co-operated with UN weapons inspectors, who resumed their work two months ago after a four-year absence. Yesterday inspectors used helicopters for the first time in their search, and colleagues on the ground visited at least six sites.

The World Health organisation estimates that up to half a million Iraqis could require medical treatment in the early stages of a war. That includes 100,000 expected to be injured as a direct result of combat and 400,000 wounded as an indirect result of the devastation.

The estimates were in a confidential UN assessment drafted a month ago but posted on the website of a British group opposed to sanctions on Iraq.

It said war would also produce a huge refugee problem, driving 900,000 Iraqis into neighbouring countries. A further two million driven from their homes could remain inside Iraq, where fighting would make access by relief agencies difficult.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq