Posted on 03/17/2003 9:07:23 AM PST by Indy Pendance
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Monday said there were new signs Baghdad might retaliate with chemical and biological weapons if the 280,000 U.S. and British troops massed near Iraq launch an invasion.
"There is increasing chatter about that possibility, but nothing concrete," one of the officials told Reuters of new intelligence as the U.S.-led force prepared for a "shock and awe" attack far more potent than the 1991 Gulf War.
The officials, who asked not to be identified, would not be more specific or say how such information had been gleaned. But U.S. military and intelligence agencies are monitoring Iraqi communications. The United States has warned that use of such weapons would be a war crime.
The United States says it is prepared to attack Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein and disarm the Gulf nation of illegal arms. Iraq denies it has such weapons.
U.S. military officials said there were now about 235,000 American and 45,000 British troops from all military services in the Gulf.
They include about 174,000 in Kuwait on Iraq's southern border to launch and support any thrust into Iraq. The rest are naval and Air Force units throughout the region.
In Kuwait, there are 149,000 Americans -- including about 65,000 Marines, as well as the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division -- and 25,000 British soldiers and Marines.
"The moment of truth is arriving," Defense Secretary Colin Powell said at the United Nations in New York.
Virtually all of the American and British troops based in Kuwait are equipped with uniforms and masks to protect themselves against chemical and biological attack.
The United States accuses Iraq of possessing large stocks of biological toxins and chemical weapons and has warned Iraq that using arms against invaders or civilians would be a war crime.
'READY FOR ANYTHING'
"As we have been saying for some time, we are ready for anything that we are told to do by the President and the defense secretary," one senior military officer said.
The massed force includes more than 600 warplanes, six aircraft carriers -- five U.S and one British -- and dozens of other surface warships and submarines capable of firing hundreds of long-range cruise missiles against Iraqi military and government targets.
Defense and military officials told Reuters last month the U.S. military planned to unleash as many as 3,000 satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles in the first 48-hours of a "shock and awe" war against Iraq designed to gain a rapid victory.
Nearly 700 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, at a cost of about $1 million each, would be launched by U.S. warships and heavy bombers in opening high-tech strikes 10 times more potent than the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War.
Included in the mix are radar-avoiding U.S. B-2 stealth bombers, which were not available in the 1991 Gulf War. Each can carry 16, 2000-pound (900 kg) bombs, each independently guided to separate targets by satellite.
The United States moved nearly a dozen cruisers, destroyers and submarines though the Suez Canal into the Red Sea from the Mediterranean last week to join some 60 American warships in the Gulf region.
The Pentagon early last month also sent F-117A "Nighthawk" stealth fighters to the Gulf region from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. The small, angular Nighthawks was the only western aircraft used to strike targets in heavily defended downtown Baghdad during the Gulf War.
What's this "LOL" crap. Iraqi WMD's are nothing to laugh about.
agreed
Indeed. And what will our response be if he chooses to use them?
No, I suppose not. But the French sure are funny.
I thought Powell was SoS?
What ever happened to those 4 large corgo ships that left IRAQ a few months ago, sailing in circles ever since?
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