Pentagon says attack on Kurds would prompt U.S. military response

In this story: Plan likely would include cruise-missile attacks U.S. carrier battle group in Persian Gulf Strikes would last several days RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Chris Plante
CNN National Security Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has developed highly classified plans for at least three days of intense attacks against Iraqi military targets if President Saddam Hussein's military strikes at the minority Kurdish population in northern Iraq this fall, Defense Department sources said.

The sources told CNN that a U.S. Army Patriot missile battery -- recently placed on a "heightened state of readiness" for possible deployment to Israel -- was alerted out of concern that Iraq might fire Scud missiles at Israel in response to any potential U.S. military action.

Officials cautioned that any action by the United States would have to be prompted by Iraqi military assaults against the minority Kurds, who are generally considered by Baghdad to be hostile to the government of Saddam Hussein.

MESSAGE BOARDS Situation in Iraq The U.S. military

Plan likely to include cruise-missile attacks

U.S. analysts are divided on whether the Iraqi military will pursue military objectives in the Kurdish region this fall, said sources who asked not to be identified. But they said the planning was "prudent" in light of Iraq's violent history with the Kurds.

The proposed U.S. strike plan would almost certainly include cruise-missile attacks and air strikes against a range of Iraqi targets, including military sites and Iraqi infrastructure associated with Saddam's military machine, officials familiar with the plan said.

One official said the United States has closely monitored recent Iraqi troop movements in the northern part of the country, but has seen no unusual activity.

"It could just be normal troop rotation," an official said.

Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were briefed on the planning Tuesday evening in the Pentagon's classified briefing room known as "the tank."

U.S. carrier battle group in Persian Gulf

The aircraft carrier U.S.S. George Washington and its battle group are in the Persian Gulf. The carrier group includes a number of ships capable of firing Tomahawk Land Attack cruise missiles.

The George Washington carries an airwing of about 75 combat aircraft.

The United States maintains a carrier battle group in the Gulf at all times to provide air power for enforcement of the southern "no-fly" zone and to keep a high-profile U.S. presence in the region.

Iraq is vulnerable in the south to U.S. and British warplanes based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and in the north to fighter and attack planes based in Incirlik, Turkey.

U.S. officials apparently do not want to be caught flat-footed, as they were in 1996 when Iraq moved against Kurds in the north under the guise of carrying out routine exercises.

In response to the suprise Iraqi move, the United States struck 14 targets on September 3, 1996 in southern Iraq with 27 Tomahawk Land-Attack cruise missiles, but only after an Iraqi military assault against the Kurdish town of Irbil.

The Baghdad government at that time installed pro-Saddam Kurds into positions of power in Irbil.

That round of U.S. strikes was widely seen as an impotent response to the Iraqi strongarm tactics in Irbil.

Strikes would last several days

Sources said the contingency plans call for several days of strikes, but would not be as intense as the attacks that took place December 16-19, 1998, during Operation Desert Fox, when the United States attacked 100 targets in Iraq in response to a dispute between Iraq and United Nations arms inspectors that led to the departure of the U.N. team.

Pentagon officials said at the time that the strikes set back by about two years Iraq's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and greater ballistic missile capability.

There has been speculation that the United States might respond militarily to an anticipated Iraqi refusal to allow United Nations arms inspectors back into Iraq, but Pentagon officials said such a proposal was opposed by important U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia ,which provides bases to U.S. and British warplanes patrolling Iraq's southern "no-fly" zone.

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U.S. Department of Defense
Iraqi Presidency
Amnesty International Report 1999: IRAQ
ArabNet: Iraq
U.S. Department of State, Human Rights Report
Iraqi National Congress

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