Iraqi opposition reports war readiness signals
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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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