The USA is getting ready to make Iraq the second target after Afghanistan during the process of the global anti-terrorist operation. Experts say, the Americans will attack Iraq not earlier, than around the middle or the end of February

Debka, the news services, informed that the American pursuit planes and the bombing planes will be dispatched in Kuwait, in Sinai and in the Israeli Negeva. The command of the Third US Army, with Paul Mikolashek at the head, has moved from Fort McPherson to Kuwait. Israel is becoming one of the main supporting points during the attack on Iraq, the ammunition depots have been arranged in the central and southern parts of the country. The American ships have been delivering a lot of protection devices from gas, chemical, biological attacks since the beginning of December of the past year.

The Third US Army consists of nine divisions; 75 thousand soldiers are going to be dispatched to the Iraqi front by the beginning of February. The campaign in Iraq will apparently differ from what the world was watching in Afghanistan. There will be at least seven countries involved in the war against Saddam Hussein's regime: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrein, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey. Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon are supposed to directly participate in the army actions, like the Pentagon officials say.

The first goal of the American strike is the Iraqi political and army centers. May of them are hidden deep under the ground, that is why the Americans will try to get them out of there with the help of their bombs. The Turkish troops will start the land operation in the north of Iraq during the second stage of the operation. Debka did not inform on the way, how the Iraqi Kurds and the Turkish military men are going to get along with each other, but the negotiations on the subject have been reportedly started.

The third strike stipulates for the participation of the elite infantry troops and the commandos of the USA, Israel, and Jordan. They will destroy the large concentration of the Iraqi troops, the planes on the vast territory in the central and northern parts of Iraq.

The special units of the allied countries are supposed to attack and then leave the hotspot, without the lingering battles. As Debka reported, that tactics was caused by the latest information of the American intelligence, which said that Saddam Hussein carefully analyzed the war in the Persian Gulf of 1991 and the current war in Afghanistan. He ordered to divide the most effective military groups into the small ones, dispersing them all over Iraq. The numerous food depots have already been prepared for those groups. The Americans have the information, which says that the units of the Iraqi republican army have the new light laser weapon, which is meant for blinding and burning the human skin. The Iraqi soldiers are going to use that weapon against the American pilots of the low-flying aircraft, since Saddam perfectly realizes that the airspace will belong to the Americans from the first minute of the new war. The Iraqi troops have already used such weapon before - in the war with Iran. The Iraqi army also has the chemical weapon, the Americans do not know the exact nature and scope of it. Iraq is ready for that war, and this makes the Americans delay its beginning.

The Pentagon decided to begin the operation in the north of Iraq, because there was a large underground complex located there - almost like a town for the Iraqi administration. The underground town was originally meant for storing the bombs and explosives, but then Saddam ordered to build tunnels, roads, living quarters, army headquarters there. The entire complex is meant for the government of Iraq in case of the attack against the country.

The Americans are going to use bombs and missiles against that underground town - the same, which were dropped on al-Qaeda's caves in Afghanistan. As the USA believes, the destruction of the underground town will be enough for the central headquarters to lose the command of the army.

Sergey Borisov
PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov.
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