The United States has confirmed that Iraq has moved its
missiles within range of American troops in northern Kuwait.
Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraq
has moved surface-to-surface missile batteries south toward the Kuwaiti
border. He said the missiles are now
within range of U.S. and allied forces, Middle East Newsline reported.
The reference appeared to be that of Iraq's Ababil-100 missile. The
missiles have been moved from the area around Baghdad to about
150 kilometers north of the Kuwaiti border, according to U.S. intelligence sources.
U.S. spy satellites have detected an undetermined number of launchers and missiles transported from positions south of Baghdad toward the area of Basra, according to Western intelligence sources cited by Geostrategy-Direct.com. The missile redeployment was detected in January and evidently was in response to the U.S. military buildup in northern Kuwait.
Myers said Iraq has also moved missiles north near the Turkish border.
The general said these missiles are also within range of U.S. and Turkish
troops.
"They have been deployed, some down to the south, within range of
Kuwait, where we have lots of coalition forces; some close to the Turkish
border, where we and our ally Turkey are located as well," Myers told a news briefing Friday. "And
they become a threat to our forces, absolutely, because they were new
deployments."
The U.S. military has stepped up attacks on Iraqi
surface-to-surface missile batteries. U.S. warplanes struck four such
missile batteries in one day last week.
On Sunday, the United Nations began destroying Iraqi Al Samoud missiles.
Iraqi sources said six such missiles were destroyed over the last 24 hours,
bringing to 10 the number of Al Samoud missiles destroyed. Iraq claims it
has deployed 100 Al Samouds.
