| Date: | Saturday June 21, @07:24AM |
|---|---|
| Author: | ewing2001 |
| Topic: | News |
| from the Sidney-Sun-Herald dept. | |
By Alex Mitchell -June 22 2003
Australian, US and British special forces took control of a quarter of Iraq before the war was officially launched on March 20, allied forces commander General Tommy Franks said yesterday.
In an extraordinary statement that suggests Australians were engaged in the war prior to Prime Minister John Howard officially committing troops, General Franks said more than 50 12-member special forces units secretly entered the Iraqi desert before hostilities began.
On the first night, they took out 50 observation posts along the borders with Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. On the second night, they destroyed another 50.
General Franks told journalists that war planners were worried Iraq might launch Scud missile attacks on Israel and Jordan from its western desert, so US, British and Australian forces had to infiltrate the area as quickly as possible to prevent a wider Middle East conflict.
The statement means that when Mr Howard was saying in mid-March that no decision had been taken on whether to commit Australian troops, they were already on the ground in active combat.
In his address to Parliament on March 18 he formally announced Australia had "joined a coalition, led by the US, which intends to disarm Iraq of its prohibited weapons of mass destruction".
Opposition foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd said General Franks's remarks showed the inconsistencies of Mr Howard's pre-war comments. "On the question of truth, it's now time for the Prime Minister to please explain," he said.
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printed from IraqGate Australia: Tommy Franks' Statement new Problem for John Howard on 2004-06-23 08:02:17