Blair: Afghanistan strikes set to begin
Prime Minister Tony Blair will tomorrow declare that Taliban rulers have had their chance to surrender Osama bin Laden and military strikes will now begin inside Afghanistan.
Mr Blair will use his speech to Labour’s conference at Brighton to say that civilian casualties will be avoided, if humanly possible, in the raids.
But he will hand out the starkest warning yet from any coalition nation leader that military action is about to begin.
The Prime Minister will tell 3,000 party delegates in Brighton that the action will be proportionate and targeted and insist that ‘‘we will do what we humanly can’’ to avoid civilian casualties.
The strikes will be directed at the military installations and the training camps of bin Laden and the Taliban troops’ supplies and finances, Mr Blair will say.
Mr Blair will tell the conference that the Kabul regime had the chance to surrender the ‘‘terrorists’’ and chose not to do so. He will explain that the strikes will now target military ‘‘hardware’’, disrupt supplies and attack Taliban troops.
The premier appears to be setting the scene for a major military campaign involving US and possibly British forces.
But he will also use his speech to stress the importance of some good coming from the ‘‘evil’’ events of September 11, with the world community drawing together in the wake of the suicide hijackings in the US.
Mr Blair will emphasise the importance of the ‘‘humanitarian coalition’’, formed in the wake of the terror attacks to deal with the Afghan refugee crisis.
He will also stress the need for the Middle East peace process to be driven forward.
But acknowledging the public’s fears about what may lie ahead, Mr Blair will say that the dangers of inaction are now greater than the dangers posed by military action.
Mr Blair is said to have written his speech, expected to last just under an hour, in a single session at 10 Downing Street one evening last week.
It will also focus on the domestic agenda, with the Prime Minister insisting his public service reform package must go ahead to match the extra investment in schools, hospitals and transport systems.
Sources said that as much of his speech would focus on the domestic agenda as on the international situation.
The insights into Mr Blair’s speech were given by a spokesman for him, speaking on condition of anonymity.
