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More Troops Head To Gulf
The Army said Thursday it is sending 800 engineering and intelligence specialists and about 300 air defense troops to the Persian Gulf over the next several weeks. The engineering and intelligence specialists, based in Germany, are from the 130th Engineer Brigade, the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, the 22nd Signal Brigade and the 3rd Corps Support Command. The Army said they would deploy before mid-February but was not more specific.Engineers - Check Intel - Check At Fort Bliss, Texas, spokeswoman Jean Offutt said that about 300 soldiers from two Patriot air defense units -- the 108th air defense artillery brigade and the 35th air defense artillery brigade -- will head to the Persian Gulf region in the next few weeks. Their equipment was being shipped from Fort Bliss on Thursday. Between 800 and 900 soldiers from Fort Bliss-based Patriot units are in Kuwait, including some who were scheduled to return home shortly but instead have been ordered to remain in Kuwait, Offutt said. If Bush orders a U.S. attack on Iraq, Patriot air defense forces would be expected to play an important role in defending U.S. and allied forces in Kuwait and elsewhere from attack by Iraqi Scud missiles. Already there are more than 50,000 American forces in the Gulf region, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld last week signed orders for the deployment of tens of thousands more troops in the next few weeks. The U.S. forces are operating from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and other countries near Iraq. Air Defense - check Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes dropped nearly a half-million leaflets Thursday on southern Iraq asking Iraqis to tune in to American propaganda radio broadcasts. The U.S. planes dropped about 480,000 leaflets over Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, and An Nasiriyah at about 5:15 a.m. EST, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The leaflets tell readers the radio frequencies on which they can hear U.S. broadcasts from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. each evening. The broadcasts, part of the U.S. military's psychological operations in preparation for a possible war with Iraq, come from EC-130E Commando Solo airplanes flying over Kuwait. The Arabic-language broadcasts urge Iraqi soldiers to turn against Saddam's regime, accusing him of using soldiers as puppets for his own nefarious purposes. The broadcasts say Saddam builds luxurious palaces for himself while Iraqi people are sick and starving. The leaflets dropped Thursday were in the southern no-fly zone patrolled by American warplanes to keep Saddam from attacking Shiite Muslims. Psych War - check Posted by: Steve 2003-01-03 |
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