Major Iraqi troop movements reported
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Iraq continues to redeploy thousands of troops as well
as tanks and artillery near the borders of Jordan, Syria and Turkey. U.S. officials termed the movements an exercise and said the White House and Pentagon were closely monitoring them.
Iraqi opposition sources said the military has been placed on alert
around Baghdad and in northern and southern Iraq. They reported
the activation of anti-aircraft batteries and the opening of weapons
storehouses, Middle East Newsline reported.
The troop movement, the
sources said, appears to reinforce major routes that lead from Iraq to Syria
and Jordan.
U.S. officials said the redeployment appears to be an exercise of Iraq's
logistical capabilities. They said similar exercises are conducted every few
months and do not represent an immediate danger.
So far, thousands Iraqi troops and tanks have arrived over the last 72
hours to the Irbil area just south of the Kurdish autonomous zone near
Turkey. Iraqi troops were also seen arriving at the large military base in
Rutba near the Jordanian border as well as positions near the Syrian border.
Officials said the Iraqi troop movement is being closely monitored in
the White House and Pentagon. They are also the subject of talks during the
current visit by a State Department delegation to northern Iraq. The State
Department envoys are meeting Kurdish leaders in an effort to obtain Kurdish
help to enforce United Nations sanctions on Baghdad.
"We have seen reports that Iraq is moving troops towards the Kurdish
areas," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "We are trying to
establish the facts on the ground. We are watching the situation closely."
U.S. officials said Iraqi troops and tanks have also returned to Al
Qaim, site of a suspected Iraqi chemical weapons plant in western Iraq. Iraq
has acquired 200 of a planned 1,300 tank transporters from Russia. The
transporters are meant to overcome Iraq's shortage of spare parts.
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.
Kurdish leaders have warned the United States that the regime of
President Saddam Hussein plans to crush the Kurdish autonomous zone in a
so-called Arabization policy. They said this includes the expulsion of Kurds
from key oil-rich areas in the north.
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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