US accuses Saddam of chemical attack ploy

The US state department claimed yesterday it had received credible reports that Saddam Hussein's regime was planning to use chemical weapons against Shia Muslims in the south of the country, and then blame it on the United States.

"There are such reports. I have no doubt that he would do such a thing if he thought it would serve his interests," Colin Powell, secretary of state, said in a TV interview.

A state department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Guardian that intelligence had been received that General Ali Hassan al-Majid, President Saddam's cousin, had been given authority to use chemical weapons against the Shias.

Gen Majid - also known as "Chemical Ali" because he is believed to have orchestrated the gassing of thousands of Kurds in Halabja in 1988 - commands Iraq's forces in the south.

But the official would not comment on the source or reliability of the report.

The claim was one of several made yesterday and on Sunday hinting at the existence of a significant chemical weapons capability in Iraq.

But there was still no further information last night regarding a facility described as a suspected chemical weapons facility at Najaf, the Shia holy city south of Baghdad. "I think they came upon a facility that they want to take another look at, but I think we have to be very cautious about announcing that a facility has been found and could be - and therefore it is - producing weapons of mass destruction," Mr Powell said. "We have to be careful about this."

One sceptical administration official suggested that Saddam Hussein, whose regime consists of members of Iraq's Sunni minority, would be unlikely to base a chemical weapons manufacturing facility amid a Shia population where its location could more easily have been leaked to inspectors.

According to another report on the TV network CBS, US officials claim that the Iraqi leadership has drawn a "red line" around Baghdad on the map, and has authorised members of the Republican Guard to use chemical weapons if coalition troops cross it.

The state department said information had also been received suggesting that Iraqi forces were trying to obtain uniforms resembling those of the coalition, so that they could commit massacres and blame the US and UK.

But Mr Powell pointed out that the Iraqi leader had a huge political incentive not to use chemical weapons.

"The world knows he has done it before, and, were he to do it again, it would be immediate acknowledgment of the fact that he has weapons of mass destruction of the kind that he has been swearing that he does not have and we have been insisting he does have," Mr Powell said.

In recent days, officials of the Bush administration - while unwilling to express an opinion on whether President Saddam or his sons are dead - have been quoted as saying that Majid is known to be alive.

They do not believe he was present at any of the sites targeted in Tomahawk strikes last week, reportedly intended to kill senior figures in the leadership.