In this picture taken on March 21, 2003, a 105 mm gun is dropped by a Chinook helicopter to British 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery on the Fao Peninsula in southern Iraq.
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Sir John Chilcot, who will today deliver his long-awaited report into the Iraq War, was a career diplomat before his appointment as chairman of the Iraq Inquiry.
The report will include details of declassified Cabinet papers, intelligence assessments of Iraq’s weapons capability and private correspondence between Blair and the former US President George W Bush.
Sir John said: “We have concluded that the United Kingdom chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted”.
Campaigners have called for Blair to be tried for war crimes after the 2003 invasion – which cost 179 British lives.
Some of Blair’s pre-war letters to the president are published in Chilcot’s report, but not Bush’s replies.
“Whatever the findings in the Chilcot report we already know the consequences of the Iraq war – the innocent men and women killed, a country that lay in ruins and under siege, a region destabilised and a world made more risky for us all”.
The inquiry was commissioned in June 2009 by Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, following pressure from the public and parliament. It will consider the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath.
Britain’s involvement in the war was hugely contentious, with many MPs, including from the governing Labour party, voting against military action.
CCTV’s Richard Bestic reported from London.
January 29th, 2010: A defiant Mr Blair tells the inquiry that he has no regrets over removing Saddam Hussein and would do the same again.
Previously, there were a number of reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) definitely would not be prosecuting Blair following the publication of the Chilcot Inquiry.
It is also expected to criticise some of the people who made the decisions about the war, like Tony Blair.
This photo taken on December 22, 2005 shows British Prime Minister Tony Blair addressing troops at Shaiba Logistics Base in Basra, Iraq.
The report is timely, given that the death toll from the suicide bombings in Iraq this week have risen to 250, the highest death toll from an attack since Britain and her allies invaded 13 years ago.
Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley was aged just 28 when he was killed in a vehicle accident during the first days of the war.
“I’ve gone back to that time when I learned that my brother had been killed.” she said.
“If Tony Blair and other politicians responsible had told the truth it would never have happened”.
The former Labour Prime Minister “suggested a strategy for regime change in Iraq that would build over time, including “if necessary” taking military action without losing global support”.
“We have also concluded that the judgments about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction – WMD – were presented with a certainty that was not justified”.
In August it transpired that the Report would be further delayed due to the legal requirement, allowing any person who is to be criticised a fair opportunity to comment on a draft prior to finalisation and publication.
The American and British leaders at the time said he was risky and wanted him out of power.
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Russia, which opposed the invasion of Iraq, responded through a tweet from its embassy in the UK.
