Baghdad residents step up war preparations

BAGHDAD, Iraq: The United Nations flew most of its helicopters out of Iraq yesterday and Germany advised its citizens to leave the country immediately amid mounting fears of war with the United States.

Baghdad residents lined up for gasoline, and snapped up canned food and bottled water. People mobbed pharmacies to buy antibiotics and tranquilizers. Ruling Baath party officials supervised workers sandbagging fighting positions outside government buildings, including the city’s main post office. Saddam Hussein made his own preparations, sidestepping the military chain of command to place one of his sons and three other trusted aides in charge of the defence of the nation. The decree issued late Saturday placed Iraq on a war footing.

Yesterday, UN weapons inspectors flew five of their eight helicopters to Syria and then on to Cyprus after an insurance company suspended its coverage. Germany issued a new travel warning, urging its citizens to leave Iraq “immediately”. Other European diplomats, including those from Switzerland and Greece, were due to leave today, part of an expected exodus from the country’s estimated 60 missions, diplomatic sources said yesterday.

The war preparations came as US President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar met in the Azores to determine their next moves after US-led diplomacy failed to secure enough support for a UN Security Council resolution authorising war. “There’s no question but what we’re close to the end, if you will, of the diplomatic efforts,” US Vice President Dick Cheney said. French President Jacques Chirac, whose country frustrated the US efforts with a threatened veto, said yesterday he was willing to accept a 30-day deadline for Iraq to disarm, provided the move was endorsed by weapons inspectors. Speaking hours before the mid-Atlantic summit, Chirac said the inspectors will be telling the Security Council next week that they believe it is possible to disarm Saddam peacefully. Saddam, meanwhile, reorganized his country to fight a war, dividing it into four regions and placing his son Qusai and three political aides in charge of them.

The decree by the Revolution-ary Command Council — Iraq’s highest executive body — signalled the Iraqi leader was choosing loyalty above professional military skill. The move will make it more difficult for generals to defect and take their units with them since command rests in political hands. The Council’s decree placed Qusai in charge of the regime’s heartland — Baghdad and the president’s hometown of Tikrit. Qusai has for years been in charge of the elite Republican Guard Corps and his father’s own personal security. That has led many to speculate that he could be his father’s successor.

Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid was put in charge of the key southern sector facing US and British troops massed in Kuwait. Al-Majid — known by his opponents as Chemical Ali — led the 1988 campaign against rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq in which thousands of Kurds died, many in chemical attacks. Saddam’s deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was placed in command of the strategic northern region. An area that includes the Shiite Muslim holy sites of Karbala, and Najaf was placed under Mazban Khader Hadi, a member of the ruling Council. Saddam himself retained sole authority to order the use of surface-to-surface missiles and aviation resources, the decree said.

With nearly 300,000 US and British troops in the Gulf ready to strike, Iraq had been emboldened by stiff opposition to war at the Security Council, where France and other nations have insisted inspectors should be given more time. An Iraqi newspaper, Al-Jumhuriya, yesterday gloated over the opposition to US plans, saying the “arrogance of force” shown by Bush and Blair would not achieve any goals because “Iraq is more prepared than ever to confront and defeat any aggression.” Even as it braced for conflict, the government destroyed two more of its banned Al Samoud missiles, bringing the number destroyed to 70 since Iraq met a March 1 deadline to destroy the rockets after they were found to exceed the 150-kilometre (93-mile) range set by the United Nations. Iraq also handed over videotapes of mobile biological weapons laboratories to inspectors. Iraq says the videos show the laboratories do not violate UN resolutions.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said presidential adviser Amer al-Saadi sent an 82-page report to chief weapons inspector Hans Blix containing results from soil samples taken from an area where Baghdad claims to have unilaterally destroyed its stocks of the chemical agent VX in 1991. The results back up Iraq’s claim, the ministry said. Al Saadi, Iraq’s point man on disarmament, on Saturday invited Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN atomic agency, to visit Baghdad as soon as possible to settle outstanding issues. The two have yet to say whether they accepted the invitation. Also Sunday, inspectors visited a technology college in the town of Karbala south of Baghdad, according to the Information Ministry. “It’s still business as usual,” said Hiro Ueki, the UN inspectors’ spokesman in Baghdad.