US Accelerates Military Buildup in Gulf

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 06, 2003

US Accelerates Military Buildup in Gulf

The United States is accelerating its military buildup in the Gulf region and is expected to have massed about 150,000 troops by February 15, officials said on Wednesday.

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The United States is accelerating its military buildup in the Gulf region and is expected to have massed about 150,000 troops by February 15, officials said on Wednesday.

The number of US troops in the region now stands at about 113,000, with nearly half of them in Kuwait.

It is widely believed that the US forces would be ready to launch a military strike against Iraq by mid-February. But Bush administration officials said the military may need some more weeks.

In a bid to win support for a possible war against Iraq, US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday presented to the United Nations Security Council satellite photos and covertly taped conversations that he said showed Iraq was hiding banned weapons from inspectors.

Powell told the Security Council that the time is approaching for the world community to declare that "enough is enough."

The Pentagon began the large-scale military buildup in the Gulfregion since late December, when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed the first major military deployment order.

Seven Navy ships that departed their base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina last month entered the Red Sea this week, carrying about 7,000 Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. A similar size group of California-based Marines is en route to the Gulf on seven other ships.

On Monday, the Air Force sent an undisclosed number of F-117A "Nighthawk" stealth fighters from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico for their first deployment for a possible war since 1999 when they were deployed in Kosovo.

On Tuesday, the Norfolk, Virginia-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt carrying 8,000 troops started sailing toward the Gulf on Tuesday, becoming the fourth aircraft carrier to be deployed in the region.

The USS Abraham Lincoln re-entered the Arabian Sea over the weekend from Perth, Australia, where it had been undergoing repairs after completing its normal six-month deployment in the Gulf, joining the Truman and the Constellation already positioned within the striking distance of Iraq.

Each aircraft carrier, with about 70 aircraft aboard, is accompanied by a battle group of destroyers, cruisers and other ships, plus a submarine.

A senior defense official who is familiar with the planning forpossible war told local media that the Navy will have six or sevenaircraft carriers within striking distance of Iraq by the end of this month. The Navy is prepared to add the USS Kitty Hawk, which is stationed in Japan, as well as the San Diego-based USS Nimitz, although no final decisions have been made.

If a seventh carrier were needed for the Gulf buildup it probably would be the USS George Washington, from Norfolk, Virginia, the official said.

The Pentagon has also accelerated mobilization of national guard and reserve forces, announcing on Wednesday that more than 110,000 reverse forces have been called up for active duty.

In its weekly report on mobilizations, the Defense Department said about 17,000 guard and reservist forces were called up in thepast week, the third consecutive large weekly increase and second largest since the September 2001 terrorist attacks on America.

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