General who would control a war flies to the Middle East

General Tommy Franks, the man who will head the seemingly inevitable US-led war against Iraq, was in the Middle East last night, visiting troops in the region and fine-tuning battle plans with commanders.

The Pentagon said no date had been set for General Franks' return – reinforcing the sense that war is not far away.

After a meeting yesterday in Cairo with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, General Franks left for Amman, the capital of Jordan, before heading to a series of undisclosed locations where he will inspect some of the 300,000 American and British troops. At the same time, the US and Britain started pulling out non-essential diplomats and dependents from embassies across the region as a security measure.

How long General Franks will remain in the Middle East was unclear last night but he has previously said he would preside over any military assault against Iraq from the US Central Command (CentCom) regional battle headquarters at Camp as-Sayliyah. The camp is believed to be on the general's itinerary to visit, as is Kuwait – home to the vast bulk of the US and British forces.

"We don't have a return date [for General Franks] as of yet," said one US defence official.

Egypt, though a strong American ally, opposes the use of force against Iraq. Its foreign minister is part of a delegation of Arab foreign ministers that is heading to Baghdad this week in an attempt to avert war and urge Iraq to increase co-operation with weapons inspectors.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government daily Al-Jumhuriya warned yesterday that invaders would find death in Iraq. "The tyrants of the evil American administration ... will meet their black fate at the high gates of Baghdad, where the courageous people of Iraq will teach them a lesson," it thundered.

The US and Britain have amassed a huge force in the Gulf region, including 300,000 troops, dozens of warships and more than 500 aircraft. Most of the ground forces are in temporary desert camps north of Kuwait City, close to the Iraqi border. As far as is known, US battle plans will call most of the forces to form a southern front that will punch through southern Iraq and head for Baghdad.

General Franks is still hoping to establish a northern front – utilising Kurdish militia forces based in the autonomous regions in northern Iraq. But those plans have been hampered by Turkey's apparent refusal to allow 62,000 US troops to use the country as a launch pad for an invasion.

If General Franks insists on opening a northern front even without the support of Turkey – something he is believed to favour – it would mean troops and weapons have to be flown into northern Iraq from Kuwait and other US bases in the Gulf.

At the same time, as General Franks flew into the Gulf, the US and Britain started to pull out diplomats and other staff from the region for safety reasons. The US offered free flights to diplomats and dependents in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

The US State Department also warned US citizens to defer travel to Oman and the UAE and told those already there to consider leaving because of "heightened tensions and increased security concerns resulting from the current situation in the region".

It is expected that later this week, the State Department will take the more dramatic step of ordering home some of its diplomats in Kuwait, Israel and Syria. The pattern appears similar to the situation that evolved before the 1991 Gulf War, when Washington first sought voluntary departures and then ordered diplomats and dependents to get out of the region before the start of military action against Iraq.