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| Iraq |
| US, UK may use air space of Israel and Jordan |
| 2003-03-14 |
| The US and UK could use Jordanian and Israeli airspace to launch air strikes on Iraq if Turkey continues to refuse permission for allied bombers to operate out of its airbases to support an invasion. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic have said that Amman has tacitly agreed to overflight rights for allied aircraft.The prospect of squadrons of aircraft transiting from Israeli airspace on their way to bomb Iraq would be a sensitive issue for Jordan, where public opinion is strongly opposed to war against its neighbour. But the continued refusal of Turkey to allow aircraft to fly bombing missions over its territory has forced Pentagon planners to consider activating the contingency plan for Jordan. Two of the five US aircraft carriers in the region are in the Mediterranean and their jets would need to fly over neighbouring countries to attack Iraq. Tactical strike aircraft based in Turkey would effectively be grounded by Ankara's ban on operations unless they were redeployed to the British air force base on Cyprus to use the Israeli-Jordan air corridor. Nice to have that option, had not thought of the Brits Cyprus base. Boy, that would stick it to both the Greeks and Turks. Some longer-range US bombers could also use the same route to launch attacks from bases in the UK. The US Air Force has begun deploying B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri. Defence officials said the B-2s began leaving on Wednesday night, but would not disclose where they were headed. Special shelters for the bat-like stealth bombers have been built on the Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia and at RAF Fairford in western England. Last week, the first of 14 US B-52s began arriving in the UK. More than 100 British combat and support aircraft are also in place in Kuwait, Turkey, Cyprus and six other undisclosed bases in the region - a sizeably bigger UK deployment than during the last Gulf war and one which in sheer numbers has been rivalled only in recent history by the Suez deployment in the 1950s. The precise distribution of UK air power in the Middle East is not being revealed, given the acute political sensitivity of some of Iraq's neighbours over being seen to host US and ot her coalition forces. See no forces, hear no forces, speak no forces. |
| Posted by:Steve |