WAR ON IRAK

Guardian: Allied forces await attack orders

· Allied planes fire on no-fly zone
· Aziz quashes defection rumour

Staff and agencies
Wednesday March 19, 2003

Allied forces tonight awaited orders to attack Iraq after moving into position inside the demilitarised zone straddling the Iraq-Kuwait border.
Convoys of British and US tanks and fighting vehicles snaked through sandstorms in the Kuwaiti desert, taking up positions on the Iraqi border. One major deployment involved the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division of 20,000 soldiers and thousands of vehicles.

The Pentagon said allied warplanes were bombing Iraqi artillery positions in the southern no-fly zone tonight. British and American planes have carried out regular strikes in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, however the attacks have been stepped in recent days to prepare the way for a large scale invasion.

It also seemed tonight that the millions of leaflets dropped on Iraq by US and British forces, warning Iraqi soldiers to surrender, may be having an effect. The Kuwait News Agency reported that 16 Iraqi soldiers surrendered to US-led forces in northern Kuwait tonight.