Civilian casualties
are inevitable: Blair
Alt Tag: British Prime Minister Tony Blair
London: Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned that there would be civilian casualties
in the war against Iraq, but insisted that British and US forces were making
strenuous efforts to avoid such incidents.
In an article for Sunday's 'The People' newspaper, Blair said on March 22 that US-
British air strikes were designed to target Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's "levers of
oppression and power" and not the Iraqi people.
"We must realise that no matter how hard we try to avoid them, there will be
civilian casualties," the Prime Minister said.
"But while the dramatic TV pictures have shown the force of the attacks on Baghdad,
they have also highlighted just how much effort has gone into safeguarding civilians
and ensuring the targets are Saddam's regime and machinery of control and
terror."
The besieged Iraqi capital came under bombardment again on March 22 as it was still
reeling from the first night of the all-out bombing campaign which Iraq said left
three dead and 207 injured.
Blair, Washington's staunchest ally in the war, said that if the US and Britain had
backed away from confrontation, it would have made the threat from Saddam even more
dangerous, enabling him to build up chemical and biological weapons and re-start a
nuclear programme.
"So whatever the short-term outcome, the real result would not be peace as all of us
want but more bloodshed and conflict," Blair said.
