Iraq War 'began Last Year'

The Iraq war began in mid-2002 with intensive air strikes under the guise of enforcing the southern no-fly zone over the country, a senior US officer admitted in remarks published yesterday.

Lieutenant General Michael Moseley, the chief allied war commander, said that the previously secret plan, Operation Southern Focus, was launched last summer - before President Bush took his case against Baghdad to the United Nations.

The operation involved dropping 606 precision-guided bombs on 391 targets, in an effort to destroy Saddam Hussein's air defences.

"It provided a set of opportunities and options for General [Tommy] Franks" so that the coalition commander would not have to launch a "preliminary war effort" at the start of his campaign, Gen Moseley told the New York Times and Washington Post, at a meeting of top brass in Nevada.

The air force general said Operation Southern Focus paved the way for the use of special forces early in the war, and the decision to begin the ground war earlier than planned with offensives by marines and regular infantry.

The admission raises further questions about US intentions in the build-up to war, at a time when the administration is scrambling to explain its reliance on shaky intelligence in making the case for war.

It is also under increasing pressure over the almost daily attacks on US troops in Iraq.

Two more US soldiers were killed yesterday and a third was wounded in an ambush west of Mosul, bringing to 37 the number of US troops killed since President Bush declared the war over on May 1.

US civilian administrator Paul Bremer said yesterday that the attacks were being organised by a small band of "professional killers" in an area that was probably harbouring Saddam Hussein.