Special Forces begins 'non-lethal' weapons training for Iraqi opposition

WASHINGTON Ñ The United States will begin "non-lethal" weapons training for the Iraqi opposition.

The training of the first group of members from the London-based Iraqi National Congress will begin next month in a military facility in College Station, Texas. The five-day course will provide instruction on such weapons as the semi-automatic Kalishnikov, 12-gauge shotgun and other firearms.

Instructors will include members of the U.S. Special Forces.

The course is a departure from previous U.S. activities, which were limited to non-lethal training. U.S. officials said the Bush administration has not changed previous policy and termed the forthcoming course as non-lethal.

The $98,000 contract for the course is being financed with some of the $97 million authorized by Congress for the Iraqi opposition. The lion's share of the funding was never delivered.

But the administration Ñ believed divided between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Ñ is now working on projects that would allocate about $33 million to the INC. This would include humanitarian missions, intelligence gathering and propaganda broadcasts inside Iraq.

INC leaders said the course falls well short of military training needed to confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But they termed this the start of an active Iraqi opposition that could attract defectors from Saddam's military. This includes the largely depleted ranks of the elite Republican Guard.

"The Iraqi army is unwilling to defend Saddam," INC leader Ahmad Chalabi said. "But they are too weak to overthrow him."

Iraqi opposition leaders and U.S. officials agreed that the INC will require safe havens to launch operations against the Saddam regime. This would include help from neighboring Iran, Syria and Turkey.

So far, Turkey appears opposed to help any effort to overthrow Saddam and endanger its restored ties with Baghdad. Officials said Ankara fears that the fall of Saddam could spark a renewed Kurdish insurgency in Turkey from the neighboring enclave in northern Iraq.