Human shields in Baghdad

LONDON, March 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. and Britain are prepared to launch war against Iraq immediately after the United Nations Security Council votes on a second resolution, regardless of its outcome, a U.K. newspaper reported Sunday, March 2.

The Sunday Telegraph quoted senior ministers saying that U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair was prepared to launch military action, irrespective of whether Britain, the United States and Spain secured a majority vote in the U.N. for the second resolution they have tabled.

A senior minister told the Telegraph: "Win or lose at the U.N., the Iraqi army will get flattened quickly. It will be almost immediate. We are not going to hang around."

The right-wing paper quoted an unnamed minister as saying: "There is a sense of immediacy. It will be two, three weeks from now. Not longer. This is a phony peace."

Britain's Sunday Express tabloid reported that the U.S. and Britain were set to order military strikes within a fortnight on Iraq, which is accused of failing to give up weapons of mass destruction.

The right-wing newspaper said, however, that Blair was convinced that Britain and the U.S. would win backing for a second U.N. resolution, and the first bombing raids were expected to swiftly follow the vote.

Along with Spain and the U.S., Britain has sponsored a new resolution declaring Iraq in non-compliance with earlier U.N. demands that it disarms, which would in effect authorize the use of force against President Saddam Hussein's regime.

British Human Shields Leave

In another development, almost all of the first wave of British "human shields" to go to Iraq are on their way home after deciding that their task was now too dangerous, the same paper reported.

Two red double-decker buses, which symbolized the hopes of anti-war activists when they arrived to a fanfare of publicity a fortnight ago, have left Baghdad and were on the long journey back to Britain, the paper said.

Nine of the original 11 peace activists decided to pull out after being given an ultimatum by Iraqi officials to station themselves at targets likely to be bombed in a U.S.-led war or leave the country, according to the Telegraph.

A further 20 Britons remained in Baghdad after two new groups arrived there last week, the British paper said.

A top U.S. defense official warned on Wednesday that foreign volunteers who act as a "human shield" in Iraq would be at risk.

The official would not say how U.S. policymakers and military planners intended to deal with the problem of the 100 to 200 foreigners who have volunteered to serve as human shields at Iraqi installations.

But he said those who volunteer as human shields "may have crossed the line" from being civilians protected under the international laws of armed conflict to being combatants, who are not.

A large group of these peace activists arrived in Baghdad from London earlier in February in a convoy of two red double-decker buses and a white cab after a 4,800-kilometer (3,000-mile) overland journey.