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Iraqi opposition reports war readiness signals

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Thursday, June 28, 2001

ABU DHABI Ñ Iraq is said to be preparing its military for a war outside its borders.

Iraqi opposition sources said the military has been placed on alert around Baghdad and in northern and southern Iraq. They said these include the operation of anti-aircraft batteries and the opening of weapons storehouses.

In addition, the military has moved troops to several areas of Iraq, including near the Syrian and Turkish border. The troop movement, the sources said, appears to reinforce major routes that lead from Iran to Syria and Jordan.

Iraq, the sources said, has obtained at least 200 tank transporters from Russia. They said Baghdad plans to import up to 1,300 such vehicles in an effort to compensate for a lack of spare parts for tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Arab intelligence sources have confirmed the preparations. They said Baghdad is preparing for a military conflict with U.S. and British forces.

Baghdad, they said, expects allied attacks on military bases and anti-aircraft positions that endanger U.S. and British patrols of no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq.

On late Monday, an Iraqi military spokesman said U.S. and British warplanes conducted 32 sorties over northern and southern Iraq. The spokesman said Iraqi anti-aircraft fire forced the allied planes to return to their bases in Kuwait and Turkey.

The Iraqi military preparations has concerned Kurdish separatists in the north, who have established an autonomous zone. Kurdish leaders are concerned that President Saddam Hussein, with the blessing of Iraq's northern neighbor, Turkey, will launch an attack on Kurdistan.

Masoud Barazani, head of the Kurdistan Democracy Party, said Turkey will remain a strong ally of the Kurds. Barazani said the four million Kurds in northern Iraq don't want to break away and form a separate state, an entity vociferously opposed by Ankara.

On Monday, Turkey's parliament extended the mandate of the British and U.S. forces that patrol the no-fly zone in northern Iraq. The mandate, called Operation Northern Watch, began in 1997 and was extended until the end of this year.

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