Buildup Enables US to Start Attack on Iraq in January: US Officials

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 09, 2002

Buildup Enables US to Start Attack on Iraq in January: US Officials

The United States will soon have enough heavy tanks, warships, aircraft and troops in the Persian gulf region to enable it to attack Iraq sometime in January, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

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The United States will soon have enough heavy tanks, warships, aircraft and troops in the Persian gulf region to enable it to attack Iraq sometime in January, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Senior US military officials said about 60,000 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, as well as bout 200 warplanes, are now in or near the region.

The US army alone has 9,000 soldiers, 24 Apache helicopter gunships and heavy equipment for two armored brigades in Kuwait.

By late next week, four aircraft carriers will have been poisedto strike Iraq on short notice, with a fifth in Southeast Asia ready to steam to the gulf in a crisis, the officials said.

Two of the carriers, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, areheading home, but the Navy will keep their crews together about two weeks longer than the usual 30 days after arrival in case theyare ordered back to the gulf.

US special operations forces in the region are refining plans to hunt for Scud missiles and clandestine weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they said.

About US 1,000 military planners, led by the chief of US Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks, have assembled in Qatar and other gulf states for a computer-assisted exercise that begins Monday and is intended as a model for an offensive against Iraq.

Taken together, those are unmistakable signs that before long, US President George W. Bush will be in a position to order an attack to disarm Iraq and topple its leader Saddam Hussein, and have it carried out within days, senior US military officials said.

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