Tony Blair was last night accused of a ‘cynical spin operation’ after offering a feeble half-apology for the Iraq War.

Bereaved families and critics of the war said the former prime minister was ‘passing the buck’ after he offered a series of selective apologies for the conflict.

In an interview with US television, he said he apologised for the fact the intelligence on which the conflict was based was wrong.

Scroll down for video

Tony Blair, pictured, apologised on US television for the fact that pre-Iraq war intelligence was wrong

Tony Blair promised George Bush that he would be able to convince Britain to support an Iraqi invasion

He also said sorry for ‘some of the mistakes in planning’ and for mistakes in handling the aftermath of the conflict. And he admitted that he had ‘some responsibility’ for the rise of Islamic State in Iraq in recent years.

But he continued to justify his actions, saying he found it hard to apologise for removing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Parents of British soldiers who died in the conflict said he should apologise personally to them for their loss. Politicians who opposed the conflict accused him of ‘weasel words’.

His comments also prompted fears about the outcome of the Chilcot Inquiry into the war and whether it will uncover the truth.

Mr Blair, 62, has already received details of the criticisms he is expected to face from Sir John Chilcot’s marathon inquiry.

His intervention at this stage was seen as an attempt to counteract the report’s conclusions before they are published.

Reg Keys, pictured, whose son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was a military policeman killed in Iraq in 2003 by an angry mob said the former PM was the 'consummate master of spin' following his interview on CNN

Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was a Royal Military Policeman killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003, called Mr Blair ‘the consummate master of spin’.

‘He is pre-empting the various angles of criticism when Chilcot comes out. He is laying the groundwork beforehand,’ he said.

‘He’s apologising for incorrect intelligence – well why didn’t he march over to MI5 and MI6 at the time and sack them? He’s pointing the finger now at intelligence chiefs, he’s passing the buck, the buck stops at No 10.

‘He’s shifting the blame and trying to lessen the impact on himself. The ultimate responsibility is with him. He made the case for war. Blair was the one spinning it.

‘If he’s going to apologise, can’t he find it in his heart to apologise for loss of life? He’s trying to soften the blow, not that I think it will be that hard hitting anyway, it will be diluted.’

Janice Procter, 53, whose son Private Michael Tench, 18, was killed by a roadside bomb in 2007, said: ‘Tony Blair is a liar and he should be tried for murder.

Rose Gentle, pictured beside her son Gordon's grave, who died in Iraq in 2004 said Tony Blair was to blame

‘This just shows the report will be a total whitewash and a complete cover-up with him shifting the blame on to other people.

‘How does he sleep at night? He couldn’t apologise to me in 2007. He should be made to face every single parent whose son died in the war. The fact we are having to still fight for the truth is beyond belief.’

Rose Gentle, whose son Fusilier Gordon Gentle, 19, died in the Iraq War in 2004, said: ‘That is not an apology, to me. He is the one who looked over every bit of information he was given. He was the PM who gave the go-ahead for us to go in. He is the one to blame.

‘I’ve been speaking to the families overnight and they are all really upset. It is certainly not an apology to us.

‘I think when we get the report a lot of questions will be left out. They have had such a long time to answer.’

Interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN, Mr Blair said: ‘I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong.

‘I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.’

Blair admitted the failure to see what would happen after Saddam's removal was 'our mistake'

Asked if Iraq was ‘the principal cause’ of the rise of Islamic State, he conceded: ‘I think there are elements of truth in that.’

He added: ‘Of course you can’t say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015.’

No date has yet been given for the release of the final conclusions of the Chilcot Inquiry, more than six years after it was set up.

The delays have been blamed on the time required to inform those who will be criticised and deal with their responses. Mr Blair has denied he is the source of the hold-up.

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader in Westminster, said: ‘Nobody will be fooled by Tony Blair’s weasel words. [His] comments are plainly the start of a cynical spin operation ahead of the expected timetable announcement for publication of the Chilcot report.

‘Those who lost loved ones in Iraq and all those who protested against it deserve a full and frank account of the decisions which led to the invasion and, as Tony Blair now admits, also led to the rise of Daesh [Islamic State].’

Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said: ‘His partial acknowledgement that the military action against Saddam Hussein has made some contribution to instability in the Middle East will do nothing to change public opinion that his was a major error of judgment.

‘The inevitable truth is that Iraq is his legacy and it will be his epitaph.’

How self-serving interview seeks to shift the blame: JAMES SLACK deconstructs Tony Blair's spin

WHAT HE SAID: I can say that I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong.

WHY IT’S SPIN: Blair is seeking to shift blame for the dodgy dossiers and the lies told in the build-up to war on to the intelligence agencies. In other words, he is only ‘sorry’ for something that isn’t actually his fault. Yet he ignores the enormous pressure that Downing Street was putting on MI6 and the Joint Intelligence Committee to help him make the case for toppling Saddam – not to mention No 10’s own role in ‘sexing up’ the material.

The Butler Inquiry – though widely seen as a whitewash that let Blair off the hook – said the language in the Government’s dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction may have given the impression there was ‘fuller and firmer’ intelligence behind its judgments than was the case.

The conclusions in the dossier about Saddam’s threat also went to the ‘outer limits’ of the available intelligence, the inquiry said. Overall, more weight was put on the intelligence than it could bear.

Lord Butler's report, published in July 2004, pictured, was widely seen as a 'whitewash' but it did say that the Government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction had stretched the intelligence to its limit

WHAT HE SAID: I also apologise, by the way, for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.

WHY IT’S SPIN: A date for the publication of the Chilcot report is imminent. Blair is aware of the criticisms that Chilcot is planning to make because the Inquiry has already written to him to tell him.

Ever the master of the dark art of media manipulation, he is therefore apologising for the post-war anarchy in Iraq in advance, to try to take the sting out of Chilcot’s findings.

Yesterday, ex-home secretary Lord Blunkett revealed how Blair had put blind faith in the US being able to rebuild Iraq – a truly spectacular misjudgment.

WHAT HE SAID: There are elements of truth in that [the suggestion that the invasion of Iraq led to the rise of Islamic State]. Of course you can’t say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015 – but it is important to also realise that the Arab Spring which began in 2011 would have also had its impact.

A date for the publication of a report into the Iraqi invasion by Sir John Chilcot, pictured, is imminent. The report is expected to heavily criticise Blair, which may have prompted his CNN interview to 'spin' his own version

WHY IT’S SPIN: To deny that the post-invasion chaos in Iraq created the space for first Al Qaeda and now IS to turn Iraq into a hotbed for terrorism is impossible – a fact even Blair himself now belatedly concedes.

However, his mea culpa is swiftly followed by an attack on the West’s leaders for ‘doing nothing’ in Syria – which, he says, is where IS ‘actually came to prominence’. The implication is that Blair would have intervened to prevent this from happening.

On his actions in Iraq, versus the current bloodshed in Syria caused by the West’s failure to act, he arrogantly declares: ‘That’s a judgment of history I’m prepared to have.’

WHAT HE SAID: I find it hard to apologise for removing Saddam.

WHY IT’S SPIN: Having pre-empted Chilcot on failures in planning and intelligence, we get to the truth of the matter: Blair is actually utterly unrepentant about a war that claimed the lives of 179 British servicemen and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis.