LONDON Ñ Iraq has deployed troops from positions in the North to the Jordan border as U.S. intelligence stepped up consultations with Kurdish leaders.
Scores of U.S. military personnel are said to be shuttling from Turkey
to northern Iraq to discuss a military campaign against Saddam. The U.S.
intelligence officers have also conducted a review of potential military
assets in northern Iraq required for any invasion.
Iraqi opposition sources said the Iraqi forces had been stationed near the Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Iraq. They said the troops have dug bunkers in the desert frontier between Iraq and Jordan.
Jordan has expressed opposition to any U.S. attack against the regime of President Saddam Hussein. On Monday, Iraqi Vice President Izzedin Ibrahim ended a weekend visit to Jordan.
The London-based Al Hayat daily said an undetermined number of Iraqi troops have arrived at the Jordanian border from their positions in northern Iraq. The sources said the redeployment began over the weekend.
The report in the Saudi-owned newspaper appeared on Tuesday hours before the arrival of U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney to Jordan, where he is to meet King Abdullah. The newspaper quoted Kurdish sources based in Damascus.
Meanwhile, Kurdish leaders have been meeting with U.S. officials to draft a
strategy against the regime of President Saddam Hussein. But the Kurds have
expressed concern that Washington would not protect northern Iraq against
any Saddam backlash similar to that which took place in 1995.
A U.S. plan to establish an opposition radio station in
northern Iraq has been stymied by Kurdish leaders.
Kurdish sources said the leadership has refused to allow the station to
operate without U.S. guarantees that American troops will protect the
facility. The facility is meant to be operated by the London-based Iraqi
National Congress.
"Going on air from our area is going to be difficult without any
concrete and direct U.S. assurances and guarantees," Muhammad Haji Mahmoud,
leader of the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party, told the London-based
British Broadcasting Corp.
Kurdish sources said the station was constructed in a mountainous area
near the Iranian border under Kurdish control. The United States
has delivered and installed the transmitter and required studio equipment
needed for the facility. The station, composed of eight rooms, is said to
have cost $178,000.
