WASHINGTON March 22 —
After weeks of waiting off Turkey's coast, dozens of U.S. ships
carrying weaponry for the Army's 4th Infantry Division have been
redirected to the Persian Gulf, two U.S. defense officials said
Saturday.
The decision ends U.S. hopes of using Turkish bases to move heavy
armored forces into northern Iraq, where Bush administration
officials fear conflict between Turkish forces and Iraqi Kurds.
About 40 ships carrying the division's weaponry and equipment
were to begin moving through the Suez Canal on Sunday, one of the
officials said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.
The 4th Infantry's soldiers, who remained at Fort Hood, Texas,
after their weaponry and equipment went to the Mediterranean last
month, are likely to go to Kuwait, the officials said.
It also was possible that they could enter Iraq directly through
the Gulf port of Umm Qasr, now under the control of British and U.S.
Marines after clashes Friday with Iraqi forces.
At Fort Hood, officials said lead elements of the division are
expected to begin moving early next week. Officers greeted the
decision with relief.
"At last, a decision's been made the speculation's over, the
waiting is over, the wondering is over," said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a
public affairs officer. "Now it's time to go do our jobs."
Aberle said it was too early to say where the troops will go and
what their role will be.
The original plan had the entire division of about 17,500
soldiers heading to Turkey, along with some Army troops based in
Germany. It was not immediately clear if the full division would go
to Kuwait.
The redirected cargo ships are to begin arriving off the coast of
Kuwait about March 30, one official said. All the ships would arrive
by about April 10.
From Kuwait they could move into Iraq to serve as reinforcements
if the ground war lasts more than several weeks, or as occupation
forces after the Iraqi government's collapse.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, it appeared Saturday that one of Saddam
Hussein's chief enforcers, Ali Hassan al-Majid al-Tikriti, was in
command of the Iraqi military and security forces in a large portion
of southeastern Iraq. Ali Hassan is known to his enemies as
"Chemical Ali" for leading a campaign against rebellious Kurds in
the 1980s that used chemical weapons to kill thousands.
The administration has said it wants to try Ali Hassan for war
crimes or crimes against humanity.
The Army already had hundreds of troops into southern Turkey to
facilitate the possible use of bases there as a staging area for the
4th Infantry, but Turkey's parliament refused to grant access.
Turkey also has been off-limits so far for U.S. aircraft flying
missions into Iraq from aircraft carriers in the eastern
Mediterranean, officials said Saturday.
As an alternative for securing northern Iraq with the tanks and
other heavy armor of the 4th Infantry, U.S. special operations
forces are now in the area and other conventional forces may join
them, officials have said.
Northern Iraq is a particularly sensitive area because of the
autonomous Kurdish region and the potential for Kurdish conflict
with Turkish forces.
There were reports Friday that Turkish soldiers in armored
personnel carriers had rolled into northern Iraq near where the
borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran converge. But the Turkish military
on Saturday denied it. The reports had said 1,000 Turkish commandos
had crossed the border.
The United States has no evidence of Turkish movements or new any
new incursions in northern Iraq, a senior Bush administration
official said.
On several fronts Saturday, U.S. troops kept up their push into
Iraq, bolstered by the surrender of thousands of Iraqi forces,
including an entire army division. Neighboring Iran protested over
strikes on Iranian territory by at least three U.S. missiles.
The State Department assured Iran, in a message sent through
Swiss intermediaries, that the United States was investigating.
Spokesman Philip Reeker offered public assurances that the United
States respects Iran's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
As the Army's 3rd Infantry Division surged more than 100 miles
across the desert toward the capital of Baghdad, U.S. and British
Marines closed in on Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.
The battle for Basra, a strategic oil hub of 1.3 million people
that is about three dozen miles from Iraq's southern border with
Kuwait, got a boost Friday when the main Iraqi army division
guarding the city surrendered from its top leaders down.
Iraq's 51st Infantry Division (Mechanized), comprising some 8,000
soldiers and about 200 tanks, was regarded as one of the better
units in Saddam Hussein's regular military, though it was not part
of the more elite Republican Guard.
An Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad who declined to give his
name said Pentagon claims the 51st Division had surrendered were
untrue.
Far to the north, the United States used five missiles to attack
positions of Ansar al-Islam, a radical group linked to al-Qaida,
which controls a small enclave within semiautonomous Kurdish
regions.
photo credit
and caption:
Turkish riot police stand guard,
with a huge poster of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan in the background, in front of the Justice and
Development Party's Istanbul office in Turkey, Saturday March
22, 2003. The Turkish military Saturday denied reports that
some 1,000 Turkish commandos crossed into northern Iraq, a
military move that would likely increase tensions with Iraqi
Kurds and Washington. (AP Photo/Osman
Orsal)
|
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed. |