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| Sunday, 5 January 2003 |
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Britain to send 20,000 troops to Gulf-report LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Britain is to send more than 20,000 troops to the Gulf and mobilise 7,000 reservists next week in preparation for war against Iraq, The Daily Telegraph said on Saturday. It said defence chiefs will brief Prime Minister Tony Blair on his return from holiday about plans for a mass deployment led by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. Blair is then expected to announce the deployment in a statement to parliament. Asked to comment on the newspaper report, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We have been making preparations to have credible options available if necessary and we are likely to do more." "We cannot however rule out the possibility of a further statement next week," the spokesman told Reuters. Last month, a British Defence Ministry source told Reuters that the United States and Britain were planning a massive seaborne invasion of Iraq from the Gulf as the first stage in any ground war. The sources said that planners were leaning towards an amphibious assault task force in the case of a war with Iraq because of the difficulties of protecting a large ground-based army from chemical or biological attack. |
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