|
Hoon: Iraq ready to use WMDs
27/03/2003 18:28 - (SA)
London - British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Thursday that US-British forces had found evidence in Iraq showing "categorically" that President Saddam Hussein's regime is ready to use weapons of mass destruction.
"We do have evidence that the Iraqi regime is prepared to use weapons of mass destruction," Hoon told a news conference as the US-led war entered its second week.
"British forces have made significant discoveries in recent days which showed categorically that Iraqi troops are prepared for the use of such horrific weapons."
Hoon did not give details but said: "I want to make it clear that any Iraqi commander who sanctions the use of such weapons of mass destruction is committing a war crime and will be held personally responsible for his action."
He was speaking a day after the US military said its Marines had uncovered 3 000 chemical suits and masks at a hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that had been used by Iraqi paramilitaries.
Hoon also said that an attack on a working class Baghdad neighbourhood on Wednesday that killed at least 14 people may have been caused by the Iraqi military.
"Although investigations continue into this tragic incident, it could clearly have been caused by fallout from the regime's anti-aircraft fire or the failure of one of the regime's own missiles," Hoon said.
Baghdad has said allied fire was responsible.
Accusations have flown between London, Washington and Baghdad since two missiles smashed into apartment complexes in the neighbourhood known as the "City of the People", according to Iraqi civil defense officials.
Hoon also warned that hopes the Iraq war would be drawn to a swift conclusion may be misplaced, and urged the British public not to allow delays to distract them from the overall picture.
"Coalition forces are making good progress in overcoming the resistance of the Iraqi security forces with great courage and resilience," he said.
"We have time to see this through. Saddam Hussein's time is running out."
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told parliament that Britain has raised its war chest for the conflict by £1.25bn to £3bn. Captives not soldiersIn other developments, Britain said two men captured by Iraqi forces and shown on the Arabic satellite television channel
Al Jazeera were contractors for the British army who had been delivering supplies to Iraqi prisoners in the south of the country.
"They should be accorded prisoner of war status and treated in accordance with international law," a defence ministry spokesperson told AFP.
In Nairobi, a foreign ministry official said they were Kenyan civilians.
"They were working for a company in Kuwait and just got caught up there."
The British High Commission (embassy) in Nairobi called for the pair to be freed.
"Our understanding is that they are civilians involved in delivering food and humanitarian assistance in southern Iraq and should be released immediately," spokesperson Mark Norton told AFP.
Hoon said another two men Al-Jazeera had shown lying in blood-stained uniforms on a dusty road in southern Iraq were believed to be British soldiers missing since Sunday and that they were dead, but this was not confirmed definitively.
Hoon called the television footage a "flagrant and sickening" breach of the Geneva Convention.
- AFX
|
News
