U.S. forces are advancing on the western Iraq city of Al Qaim where a major chemical weapons facility remains under the control of the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Western intelligence sources said the facility, located near the Jordanian and Syrian borders, is believed to be the largest production facility of weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq. The facility was reconstructed after the 1991 Gulf war.
Until today, the U.S.-led coalition has avoided capturing Al Qaim. The sources
said Al Qaim remains protected by a large Iraqi Republican Guard and regular
army force. The sources said regime officials heading for Syria probably
have passed through the city.
"The thinking is that this would be a costly battle and with the fall of
Baghdad, there might be another way to get these [Iraqi] troops to
surrender," an intelligence source said earlier.
In response, Israel has decided to maintain its high state of alert in
connection with the prospect of a missile or WMD strike from western Iraq.
Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Thursday that suspected WMD facilities
in western Iraq have not yet been captured by coalition forces, Middle East Newsline reported.
"The threat has not been removed from the state of Israel," Mofaz said.
"There are still sites around Iraq and in the west, from which there is a
threat, albeit small. But the threat still exists."
"In the west, special operations continued against regime forces in the
town of Al Qaim," Maj. Gen. Eugene Renuart, director of operations at U.S.
Central Command, said today. "And this is an area that is strategically located on
the route that joins Syria and Iraq, and it also is an area that is
potentially for use by the launch Ñ for the launching of ballistic
missiles."
South of Al Qaim, U.S. special operations forces entered the strategic
town of Al Rutbah near the Jordanian border. Al Rutbah is the gateway of the
flow of people and material from Jordan to Baghdad.
Earlier, U.S. Special Operations Forces took up positions near Al Qaim.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said coalition forces must secure
Iraq's borders to prevent the flow of WMD materials and senior regime
officials from the country. Rumsfeld said the United States is concerned
that regime members may try to export weapons or WMD expertise to what he
termed terrorist groups.
"And the thought that as part of this process, those materials could
leave the country and in the hands of
terrorist networks would be a very unhappy prospect," he said. "So it is
important to us to see that that doesn't
happen."