WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD, 2 January 2003 — The US military ordered more than 11,000 desert-trained troops to begin heading to the Gulf and Western jets struck an Iraqi defense radar yesterday, killing a civilian. The movement, including tanks and attack helicopters, was the first deployment of a full combat division of US forces to the area since the 1991 Gulf War. Much of the Army division’s equipment is already waiting in the region.
Army officials in Washington and at division headquarters in Fort Stewart and Fort Benning, Georgia, said the 1st and 3rd brigades of the division would soon begin moving to join the 2nd brigade of more than 4,000 troops, who are now training in Kuwait.
The new deployments could soon double the nearly 60,000 US personnel — including Navy and Air Force troops — already in the Gulf region and bring four aircraft carriers with 300 warplanes to bear against Baghdad. The Navy said it had ordered one of the two additional carriers, the USS Abraham Lincoln, to remain at sea in the coming weeks instead of returning to the United States from a recently completed six-months tour near Iraq. The carrier has been making a Christmas port call in Perth, Australia.
But the forces ordered to deploy so far are far short of the more than 250,000 US troops sent for the Gulf War.
The US Central Command in Florida said aircraft taking part in US-British patrols hit the military defense radar after it was moved into a "no-fly" zone in southern Iraq. Iraq said the planes struck civilian targets, killing one person.
The aircraft used precision-guided weapons on the radar, near Al-Qurnah, 210 km (130 mile) southeast of Baghdad, a command spokesman said. An Iraqi military spokesman said Iraqi anti-aircraft and missile batteries fired back.
As UN arms inspectors resumed their job in Iraq on New Year’s Day, officials at the United Nations said chief arms inspector Hans Blix will probably go to Baghdad between Jan. 18 and Jan. 20 for talks with Iraqi officials, presumably about a crucial report to the UN Security Council a week later.
Iraq extended the invitation to Blix last Saturday. The invitation, according to diplomats and officials, was timed to discuss an pivotal report Blix must give to the Security Council on Jan. 27, his first full analysis on Iraq’s cooperation with the inspectors and the accuracy of its 12,000-page weapons dossier. (Agencies)
