US
Soldiers in Turkey: Preparing for Invasion of Iraq?
Yeni Safak (Turkish Newspaper)
July 1, 2002
It has been reported that seven thousand us soldiers arrived in
Turkey
during the last two weeks. Most of the American soldiers who
arrived in
Turkey via large cargo planes have been settled in the ncirlik
base near Adana.
Apparently, the military buildup in the region is because of
U.S. plans to
start an operation against Iraq in July or August.
It has been stated that US sent 7 thousand soldiers to Turkey
for this
purpose in the last two weeks and that this number will increase
to
twenty-five thousand in July. It has also been claimed that the
U.S. plans
to maintain a force of at least 35-40 thousand persons during
the Iraq
operation. According to the information received, U.S. has
accelerated its
contacts with the Iraqi dissidents. The U.S. administration has
been in
frequent contact mainly with KDP head Massoud Barzani, as well
as
increasing its contacts with some Iraqi dissidents.
Kuwait would like Assurances.
At the same time, it has been learned that Kuwait would like
security
guarantees from the United States. Kuwait has communicated to
the United
States that they are worried that Iraq would strike them in case
of a
possible war and thus would like a substantial military build-up
near the
Kuwait-Iraq border. It's been learned that the U.S. has assigned
20
thousand marines to the task, which it found to be a reasonable
request.
Reports indicate that a small number of the marines are
transferred to
land, while the majority of them are kept ready at airbases.
According to
information obtained from sources in the foreign ministry, the
US has been
sending envoy teams to the regions in the past 10 days. The
sources point
out that the envoys sent to Northern Iraq, Egypt and Saudi
Arabia may be
connected to an operation against Iraq, and that they expect the
region to
come under even more turmoil in January and February.
Full story in Turkish:
http://www.yenisafak.com.tr/arsiv/2002/haziran/27/g4.html
