The US will use more than 3 000 precision-guided bombs and missiles in a 48-hour air onslaught on Iraq, followed by a two-pronged ground invasion barely a week later, according to war plans outlined by the New York Times yesterday.
Citing military officials, the paper said the US would rely on ”smart” weapons more than in the 1991 Gulf War to minimise civilian casualties and limit damage caused to Iraq’s infrastructure.
Unlike the attack on Afghanistan in 2001 when ground troops were held back for several weeks after the bombing began, the Pentagon will send armoured columns from two directions to drive towards Baghdad while special forces will come in by helicopter to seize oil fields to prevent them from being blown up by the Iraqis.
Plans for the air campaign also include the contingency of using nuclear weapons in retaliation for a chemical or biological attack by Iraqi forces, or to penetrate a deep bunker suspected of holding stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, according to other US reports.
A classified presidential directive signed last September and leaked to the Washington Times allows for the use of nuclear weapons against chemical or biological weapons, ending a policy of ambiguity on the subject.
According to reports a list of possible targets has been drawn up in a ”Theater Nuclear Planning Document” by Stratcom, the Pentagon’s nuclear planning wing. The document was prepared for both the administration and Central Command, which will oversee the war in Iraq.
It is unlikely that nuclear weapons would be used, if only because of the international outrage their use would cause, but US military analysts said the plans showed that the Bush administration was blurring the lines that once set the nuclear option apart from other weapons.
The leaked war plans came as some 800 Royal Marine commandos, supported by engineers and communications experts, flew into Kuwait in the first significant deployment of British ground forces to the Gulf.
Kuwait will be the main base for British ground troops, including a British armoured brigade, equipped with more than 100 Challenger 2 battletanks and long-range artillery.
The government has still to announce where Britain’s other main ground force — the 16 Air Assault Brigade, including paratroopers backed up by light artillery — will be based.
It has also not yet announced the deployment of an air package, likely to include Tornado, Jaguar and Harrier bombers, as well as in-flight refuelling aircraft, Nimrod spy planes, and Canberra aerial reconnaissance aircraft.
The air campaign could be over in a week, the New York Times report said.
”The Army’s Third Infantry Division and a sizeable contingent of Marines would be assigned to punch north from Kuwait, while a force spearheaded by the Fourth Infantry Division… would move south from Turkey,” the paper said.
Paul Keetch, the Liberal Democrat defence representative who recently visited Kuwait, disclosed yesterday that British troops heading for the Gulf have been issued with a radio system, the Clansman, which malfunctions.
In addition, Challenger 2 tanks which need to be modified for desert conditions, will only be upgraded once they get to the Gulf, he said.
Keetch described the MoD’s lack of preparation as inexplicable. – Guardian Unlimited Â