US Special Forces Already Active in Iraq: US Paper

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US Special Forces Already Active in Iraq: US Paper

United States Special Operations forces are already operating in various parts of Iraq, which amounts to the initial ground phase of a war, The Washington Post said on Thursday.

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United States Special Operations forces are already operating in various parts of Iraq, which amounts to the initial ground phase of a war, The Washington Post said on Thursday.

The activities include hunting for Iraqi weapons sites, establishing a communications network and seeking potential defectors from Iraqi military units.

The troops, comprising two Special Operations Task Forces with an undetermined number of personnel, have been in and out of Iraq for more than a month, the paper quoted US military officials withdirect knowledge of the activities as saying.

According to the officials, the operations are designed to lay the groundwork for conventional US forces that could quickly seizelarge portions of Iraq if President George W. Bush gives a formal order to go to war with Iraq.

The ground operations point to a Pentagon war plan that is shaping up to be dramatically different than the one carried out by the United States and its allies in the 1991 Gulf War.

Instead of beginning with a massive aerial bombardment, the plan envisions a series of preliminary ground actions to seize Iraqi territory and effectively encircle Baghdad before a large-scale air campaign hits the Iraqi capital.

"It's possible that ground movements could come in and occupy large portions of Iraq almost unimpeded," The Washington Post quoted an informed source as saying.

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