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British Infantry will be ordered to lead the march on Saddam’s heartland if Tony Blair and George Bush agree on the massive military operation.
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British troops to spearhead the bloody battle for Baghdad
BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR
Scotland on Sunday
 http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/paperboy.cfm?id=101012003


BRITISH troops will spearhead the bloody house-to-house fighting to drive Saddam Hussein out of Baghdad, it emerged last night.

UK forces - because of their recent experience of urban operations in Northern Ireland and Kosovo - have been identified for the task in preference to US troops, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

The huge infantry presence in Britain’s 32,000-strong contribution to the escalating campaign against Iraq will be ordered to lead the march on Saddam’s heartland if Tony Blair and George Bush agree on the massive military operation at their "war summit" in the United States this week.

Tomorrow could prove a crucial day for the two leaders with United Nations chief inspector Hans Blix due to report on how well Iraq has co-operated during the first two months of renewed arms inspections.

It was revealed yesterday that three Iraqi scientists had refused to submit to requested private interviews - seen as vital by Washington to ensure they are not under pressure to withhold information from Iraqi officials - with arms inspectors.

A negative report could strengthen the case for war, a fight in which British troops are set to play a leading role, according to defence sources.

Detachments including the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) and 42 Commando are expected to lead the offensive because of their experience in urban combat.

American military leaders demanded the inclusion of specified British units because of their expertise in the perilous techniques of ‘Fighting in Built-up Areas’ (FIBUA), honed by intensive training at home and experience in theatres including Northern Ireland, Kosovo and the Tora Bora caves of Afghanistan.

Major Charles Heyman, editor of Jane’s World Armies, said at least three British forces, including fighters from the 16 air assault and three commando brigades, would have to engage Republican Guard soldiers in a house-to-house campaign in the Iraqi capital because they are better at the task than the thousands of American troops expected to form the bulk of the invasion force.

“This is one of the things that nobody wants to do,” said Heyman.

“It is disgusting and disastrous and dirty, but it will have to be done if they want to defeat the Republican Guard.”

Intensive FIBUA warfare involves a painstaking campaign against hidden enemies, on a street-by-street basis, using small arms, machine guns and grenades. Sophisticated hardware including helicopters, tanks and armoured vehicles is often useless because it is an easy target for enemies.

Instead, troops on the ground tackle targeted buildings manually, inserting ‘mouse-hole’ charges in walls to blow huge holes in them. They then throw grenades through the holes and charge through, hoping all those inside have been either stunned or killed.

Heyman added: “Those who are first through the hole know they have a very big chance of being killed.”

The United States’ failings in this key area were graphically demonstrated 10 years ago, when 18 elite Army Rangers were killed and dozens more wounded in a battle with Somali gunmen. The catastrophe began as an American raid to round up key allies of Somali warlord Mohammed Aidid, but erupted into a vicious exchange that is also believed to have cost the lives of more than 1,000 Somalis.

The Americans have since improved their training for “Military Operations in Urban Terrain”, but the British are acknowledged to be better prepared for the task. The RIR, a 700-strong force deployed in Northern Ireland and around the world, is routinely trained in tasks including house-clearing, search techniques and anti-terrorist operations.

But thousands more of the troops due to travel to the Gulf have undergone intensive training at specialised bases including Copehill Down, a mock village in the middle of Salisbury Plain.

“The force we have announced is a broad one with a range of capabilities and we are confident that they will be able to carry out any task they are called upon to do,” a Ministry of Defence source said yesterday. “An operation against Iraq remains a possibility, and our infantry capabilities would play a central role in that. I think the Americans are clear about that.”

Midlothian Labour MP David Hamilton, who registered his opposition to an attack without UN sanction in parliament last week, said the prospect of a bloody campaign on the streets of Baghdad should be a “sobering thought” for those supporting unilateral action.

He said: “If the Iraqis do fight street-to-street, house-to-house, the casualties are going to be really high and I can’t imagine the reaction here.”

The willingness of the British government to commit to war in the first place was the subject of contradictory newspaper claims last night. One London-based newspaper suggested Tony Blair did not see the need for UN weapons inspectors to find a “smoking gun” for Saddam to be deemed in breach of his obligations and thus liable to military sanction.

Another newspaper claimed Blair had asked his security services to compile a new dossier outlining the case against Iraq, to help him win over a deeply sceptical public.

Meanwhile, the war on terror at home took a new twist last night after it was claimed chemical warfare protection suits had been discovered at a mosque in north London.

A newspaper reported the suits had been found at the Finsbury Park mosque, which was raided last Monday by officers who at the time said only that they had recovered CS gas and a stun gun.

According to the reports, the nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) are being analysed to see if they show any traces of chemicals including ricin, the deadly poison seized during a similar raid on a flat in north London earlier this year.

 http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/paperboy.cfm?id=101012003