BRIEFING: AT WAR WITH IRAQ
BY WORLD TRIBUNE.COM WITH MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Day 8 Ñ March 27, 3003
See Previous Briefings: Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Patriots down another Iraqi Scud headed for Kuwait

ABU DHABI Ñ Kuwait said it has intercepted another Iraqi missile.

The Kuwaiti Defense Ministry said its PAC-2 missile defense battery intercepted and destroyed an Iraqi Scud-class missile on Thursday. The ministry said the Iraqi missile was destroyed in a rural area of the sheikdom and nobody was hurt.

It was the seventh Iraqi missile intercepted by PAC-2 and PAC-3 systems. Iraq has fired about 15 missiles, most of them the short-range Al Samoud and Al Ababil missiles.

Brits destroy Iraqi tanks fleeing Basra

ABU DHABI Ñ Iraqi tanks fleeing from the southern city of Basra continue to be targeted by allied forces.

British air and ground forces destroyed 14 Iraqi T-72 and T-62 tanks and four unidentified armored personnel carriers on Thursday. It was the second straight day of British attacks on an Iraqi armored convoy that fled the city.

"Having established that these forces were not trying to surrender, UK forces took swift and decisive action against this threat, destroying a number through a mixture of artillery and air power," British commander Brian Burridge told a briefing at coalition headquarters in Qatar on Thursday.

More than 100 Iraqi tanks fled Basra for the Al Faw peninsula on late Wednesday. Many of those tanks were also said to have been destroyed by British forces. British forces have not yet entered Basra, the second largest city in Iraq.

U.S. renews request for Turkish military bases

ANKARA Ñ The United States is said to have renewed its request for the use of military bases in southern Turkey.

The Turkish daily Radical reported on Thursday that the Bush administration relayed a request for the use of three Turkish military bases for the war against Iraq. The newspaper said the request is being discussed by Ankara and Washington.

The United States has also asked Turkey to ease its restrictions on the use of air bases and air space. The newspaper said the request was renewed amid the failure to form an allied northern front in the war against Iraq.

Ankara has allowed U.S. aircraft to use Turkish air space. But parliament has banned U.S. military planes deployed in the war against Iraq to take off or land from Turkish bases, including Incerlik.

About 1,000 paratroopers from the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade have been deployed in northern Iraq. They are expected to be joined by another 5,000 troops. But the force is regarded as too small to constitute a credible northern front in the battle for Baghdad.

Germany sends NBC battalion to Kuwait

ABU DHABI Ñ Germany has sent another military contingent to Kuwait to protect the sheikdom from Iraqi biological or chemical weapons attacks. A company of 110 soldiers trained in the detection and response to nonconventional weapons has arrived in Kuwait. The NBC [nuclear, biological, chemical] protection unit will bolster the German military presence in the sheikdom.

Germany has deployed an NBC battalion in Kuwait that includes six Fuchs armored reconnaissance vehicles equipped to detect nuclear, biological and chemical weapons agents. The German unit is part of a multinational NBC contingent based in Doha, Qatar and which includes Czech and Slovak forces.

German officials said the German military presence was reinforced in wake of a decision by U.S. Central Command to withdraw U.S. soldiers in the NBC contingent. The Czech Republic is also expected to reduce its presence in the Gulf.

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