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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 08, 2002

Britain to Send 30,000 Men to Help Oust Saddam Hussein: Newspaper

Britain is preparing to send 30,000 troops to join America in a full-scale invasion of Iraq to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power early next year, The Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday.


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Britain is preparing to send 30,000 troops to join America in a full-scale invasion of Iraq to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power early next year, The Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday.

A senior Ministry of Defense (MoD) official was quoted as saying Britain will contribute a division of 20,000 men composed of armored and infantry brigades to fight alongside the United States.

The force would be supported by up to 50 combat jets, an aircraft carrier group composed of frigates, destroyers and a submarine from the Royal Navy, he said.

"Troops have been pulled back from the Balkans and Afghanistan in preparation for a spring attack against Iraq. The army would contribute a division, similar to what we contributed in the Gulf War."

The early spring is regarded as the "next best option" for an attack because the weather is still cool enough to conduct military operations in the Iraqi desert, the report said.

"U.S. military chiefs believe that the mission to remove Saddamcan be achieved with a force of about 250,000 troops, aided by an uprising of Iraqi dissidents inside that country," it said.

President Bush has accepted that the United States will not be able to replicate the size or make-up of the allied coalition thatinvaded Iraq in 1991 and is relying on Britain for moral and military support, according to the paper.


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