International media reports Sir John Chilcot's statement over the report say former prime minister Tony Blair presented the case for war in 2003 with "a certainty which was not justified" based on "flawed" intelligence about the country's supposed weapons of mass destruction which was not challenged as it should have been.
Chilcot, the author of the report, has said the risks to British troops were not properly identified, or flagged up to ministers, the Guardian reports, and Cabinet did not discuss the military options or their implications.
The UK Telegraph reports him saying the war was “an intervention which went badly wrong, with consequences to this day”.
He said that military action “might have been necessary at some point” but in March 2003 “there was no imminent threat from Saddam; the strategy of containment could have been adapted and continued for some time, and the majority of the Security Council supported continuing UN inspections and monitoring”.
Blair told the inquiry the problems encountered after the invasion could not have been known in advance, however, the report says the inquiry does not accept Blair’s claim that it was impossible to predict the post-invasion problems.
Chilcot says his inquiry concluded it was American and Britain who were undermining the authority of the UN security council, because they pushed for military action when peaceful alternatives had not been exhausted, the Guardian reports.
He says the inquiry has concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion before the peaceful options were exhausted.
There have been countless protests across the globe since the invasion, as well as calls for both former US president George W Bush, and the UK's Blair to have been impeached.
International media also reports families of British soldiers who died in Iraq are looking at taking legal action against Blair.
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