Iraq: An Iraqi officer has claimed he warned British intelligence about Saddam's Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programme.
The officer, identified only as Lieut Col Al-Dabbagh and said to be head of a frontline air defence unit in the western desert, told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper he had warned the secret service MI6 that Iraqi forces could use chemical or biological weapons on the battlefield against invading forces in less than 45 minutes. A UK government dossier making the case for war against Iraq said Saddam's threat was such that he could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes.
Col Al-Dabbagh claimed that the only reason the weapons were not used was because most of the Iraqi army did not want to fight for Saddam.
UK intelligence officials said yesterday they could not comment on the story. However, Whitehall sources distanced themselves from Lieut Col Al-Dabbagh's claims, which do not tally with evidence presented to the Hutton inquiry.
The inquiry was set up to look into the events surrounding the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly, who apparently committed suicide after he had been identified as the source for a BBC report which said the 45-minute claim was untrue.
Lieut Col Al-Dabbagh said he spied for a London-based exile group, the Iraqi National Accord.
It is thought he will not be the last officer to claim to be the source of the 45-minute claim.
Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, told the Hutton inquiry that the information contained in the dossier relating to the 45-minute claim came from a single "established and reliable" source serving as a senior officer in the Iraqi army.
But Brian Jones, a former senior member of the Defence Intelligence Staff, said MI6's informant on the 45-minute claim was a secondary source. - (Guardian Service)
The top US general in Iraq, Lieut Gen Ricardo Sanchez, has warned of an upsurge in attacks in the months before Washington hands over sovereignty in June. Meanwhile, guerrillas blew apart a US Humvee with a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul yesterday, killing one US soldier and wounding two in the latest deadly strike on occupying forces. - (Reuters)