Tony Blair and George Bush Friday agreed to give the UN weapons inspectors and the intelligence agencies as long as six weeks to persuade France and Arab countries to come on board for military action against Iraq, the British media reported Saturday.
In talks at the White House, Blair impressed on the Americans that European public opinion, including in Britain, will not back a war without an explicit second UN resolution. Blair secured support for this longer coalition-building strategy from the US president in a phone call on Thursday.
Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph reported that British and US special forces have mounted a six-day covert mission into western Iraq to identify key targets in the event of a war.
Quoting defence sources, the British newspaper said that a group of more than 100 men, consisting of the US Delta force and 35 men from Britain's Special Air Service (SAS), flew into Iraq by Chinook helicopter from Jordan.
The operation was the first case of allied special forces operating inside territory controlled by the Iraqi government, according to the Telegraph.
The Telegraph added that the mission was mounted after US intelligence reports that Scud missile launchers had been moved to the western Iraqi desert. The special forces checked that the launchers were not false targets as part of an Iraqi deception plan.
The paper added that the troops set off from a Jordanian air base east of Amman, flying along a corridor in Iraqi air defences opened up by allied attacks on a main air defence command post. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
