Allied forces have launched a massive attack on Iraqi air defense facilities near the Jordanian border, the first in the area.
The allied strike on Thursday was launched from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
and was described as the biggest attack on the regime of Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein since 1998. The strike targeted the so-called H3 area
390 kilometers west Baghdad, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Coalition strikes in the no-fly zones are executed as a self-defense
measure in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts against coalition
forces and their aircraft," U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The U.S. and British air attack on Iraqi facilities near the Jordanian
border came at the conclusion of a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the
southern portion of the Hashemite kingdom. The exercise, which included more
than 4,000 soldiers, took place near the Iraqi border.
The United States is now preparing to launch a long-term military
exercise in the Persian Gulf.
Michael Evans, the defense correspondent for the London-based Times
daily reported on Friday that the allied attack appeared meant to enable
British and U.S. attack helicopters to fly into Iraq from neighboring Jordan
to search for Scud missiles. Iraq is believed to have up to 50 missiles that
can reach Israel.
The Times reported that about 100 American and British aircraft
participated in striking targets in the H3 area, where Iraq had based its
Scud-class missiles in the 1991 Gulf war. They included the U.S. F-15E,
F-16, E3 early-warning planes and EA-6B electronic warfare planes as well as
British Tornados and VC-10 tankers.
The newspaper said Saudi-based U.S. and British aircraft provided
support for the 12 attack aircraft, which dropped precision-guided bombs on
Iraqi targets. Until now, British and U.S. aircraft focused their efforts on
the no-fly zones near the Kuwaiti and Turkish borders.
U.S. officials said the Defense Department has chartered airplanes and
ships to transport tanks and other land forces equipment to Kuwait for an
exercise that will last one month. On Thursday, the Pentagon said a
Miami-based company, Arrow Air, was awarded a $5 million contract to provide
what the department termed was "international airlift services in support of
Air Mobility Command." The project is meant to be completed by the end of
the month.
About 2,000 U.S. troops will participate in the Kuwaiti exercise, called
"Desert Spring." Officials said the exercise is part of a regular schedule
of maneuvers by U.S. forces in Kuwait. The troops are rotated every six
months.
Officials said additional equipment has been transferred from Qatar to
Kuwait. The U.S. has prepositioned tanks, armored personnel carrier and
enough equipment for an armored brigade, or 5,000 troops.
"We have done a lot with pre-positioned stocks in the Gulf, making sure
that they are in the right spot to support whatever the president wants to
do," U.S. Army Secretary Thomas White said.
Pentagon officials said the exercise would take place in October along
with thousands of Kuwaiti troops and military assets.
The United States is said to have more than 10,000 U.S. soldiers in the
sheikdom, along with fighter-jets, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
The Kuwaiti base at Al Jaber is said to contain U.S. F-16s, F/A-18 F117s
and A-10s. The Al Salem base in the sheikdom contains British Tornados.
For its part, Jordan has denied that it will hold an imminent military
exercise with the United States. Jordanian officials said the last U.S.
soldiers from the Operation Infinite Moonlight exercise will leave the
kingdom on Monday. They were responding to reports that the United States
was planning to send helicopters and armored personnel carriers to the
Hashemite kingdom from Sept. 13 onwards.
