THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996 TAG: 9608310408
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 49 lines
U.S. warplanes in the Persian Gulf area have stepped up flight activity, and the Pentagon is considering other precautionary moves, in response to Iraqi troop movements in northern Iraq, Pentagon officials said Friday.
``There are movements of forces that concern us,'' spokesman Col. P.J. Crowley said.
Another Pentagon official, speaking anonymously, said the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Enterprise in the eastern Mediterranean and the Carl Vinson, a Bremerton, Wash.-based carrier in the Persian Gulf, have been put on ``short tether'' - meaning they have been told to be prepared to move on short notice.
Aircraft on the Carl Vinson stepped up flights in the area Friday as an initial display of U.S. concern, the official said.
``What you've got are some precautionary moves'' by U.S. forces, the official said, but there is no indication that a military operation will be needed.
Crowley said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has moved some of his forces north toward the region occupied by Kurdish separatist factions. There was no immediate indication of the size of the Iraqi force.
An Iraqi opposition group, the Patriotic Union, claimed in a fax sent to The Associated Press in Cyprus that Iraqi infantry and armored troops were attacking Kurdish villages.
``We call on the international community . . . to intervene urgently to prevent Saddam Hussein from unleashing his aggression against the people of Iraqi Kurdistan,'' the statement said.
The report could not be verified.
Although Saddam's intentions were unclear, the Pentagon was considering a number of other precautionary steps, Crowley and other Pentagon officials said. These steps include moving an Air Force expeditionary group of fighter aircraft into Jordan or somewhere else nearby, said officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon has long been concerned at the possibility that a military conflict in northern Iraq involving Saddam's forces could lead to a repeat of the mass Kurdish exodus into Turkey and Iran that occurred in 1991 after the Gulf War.
U.S. Air Force planes based in southern Turkey have been used since the Persian Gulf War to enforce a ``no fly'' zone over northern Iraq to protect the Kurds from Saddam's forces.
KEYWORDS: IRAQ INVASION by CNB