The architectural historian Dan Cruickshank makes the claim in a BBC Two documentary produced after the Iraqi Ministry of Information invited a British film crew to visit the country’s “lost cities”.

Remains from Babylon, the site associated with the Garden of Eden and the oldest Christian monastery would be in the firing line, Mr Cruickshank argues in a programme, which could be accused of being an Iraqi propaganda coup.

Military strategists said that sites of religious importance, such as mosques, would be “off-limits” during bombing missions.

The Ministry of Defence is determined to avoid another Dresden — the medieval German city that was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945.

A spokesman declined to comment on potential targets. However, a well placed source said: “During the Gulf War we went to great lengths to avoid hitting important sites, and ‘smart’ bombs have reduced collateral damage.

“A list of monuments to avoid will be drawn up. It is likely that Ur sustained some damage in 1991 but this was a casualty of Saddam’s decision to site an air base there.”

Mr Cruickshank and a three-man film crew were given access to sites he described as the “cradle of Western civilisation”. They filmed evidence that Saddam has bases near the most important monuments, including the 2,000-year-old city of Hatra.

Mr Cruickshank believes that Saddam intends to provoke such attacks to rouse Iraqis. The sites were popular tourist attractions until Saddam came to power. Mr Cruickshank found them abandoned and derelict other than for the care of local Beduin, who were fiercely proud of their contribution to world culture.

Speaking at Querna, on the southern tip of Iraq, where the Euphrates and Tigris meet and Adam’s tree is said to mark the Garden of Eden, Mr Cruickshank said: “An act of war visited on these people would not just be a catastrophe for history and wreck an ancient culture but bestir these peaceful people into a terrible fury.”

The team was granted entry last November as the prospects of conflict increased. The team were assigned two “minders”, who did not hinder them.

Mr Cruickshank said that although Iraq thought of the film as propaganda he feared that the “lost cities” might be destroyed in ignorance.

He visited Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, which was the heart of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago and is now in the nothern Iraq exclusion zone.

Saba al-Omari, the curator of Mosul Museum, said that stray bombs often landed near by and that they would “protect this museum until the last drop of our blood”.

Further south, at Hatra, the ancient trading city, the crew filmed a nearby airbase.

“This close juxtaposition of history and modern military construction is particularly disturbing,” Mr Cuickshank said.

At Samarra Mr Cruickshank was shown a 9th-century spiral minaret that marks the remains of the world’s largest mosque. This, along with the oldest Christian monastery, situated in Mosul and dating from the 4th century BC, was under threat, he was told.

The historian is critical of Saddam’s regime.

“Saddam is an utter monster and we had to be careful about the tone when people are about to go there and are risking their lives.”

The programme launches a ten-day BBC campaign, designed to inform the public about Iraq. Tony Blair will be interviewed by Jeremy Paxman in Newsnight next Thursday and February 12 will be designated “Iraq day”.

• Dan Cruickshank and the Lost Cities of Iraq, BBC Two, 9pm on Sunday.

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