November 11, 1998

U.S. May Land Troops In Iraq As Part Of Attack

CAIRO (AP)--The U.S. and Britain have planned a three-phase strike against Iraq that could involve deploying troops in the country, a leading Arabic newspaper quoted diplomats as saying.

After each phase of military action, the allies would present Iraq with a list of demands pending further strikes, the London-based daily Al-Hayat in its Wednesday edition.

The diplomats did not specify the demands, but they would certainly include Iraq's reversing its Aug. 5 decision to freeze all cooperation with the U.N. inspectors charged with overseeing the elimination of Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction.

Al-Hayat said the diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity from Amman, Jordan, citing as the source of the plan briefings to Arab leaders by U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen during his tour of the Middle East last week.

U.S. officials have not specified what action they might take against Iraq. But Pentagon planners have prepared deployment orders that could put tens of thousands of U.S. ground troops, 100 more warplanes and additional ships into the Gulf should President Clinton order sustained attacks against the country.

The report, leaked to Al-Hayat, the Arab world's leading newspaper, could be a warning to Iraq that an attack would not be merely a retaliatory strike but instead a sustained campaign.

- In the first phase, U.S. and British jets would attack bases of the Iraqi Republican Guards for four days, the newspaper said. The guards are the elite of the Iraqi army and regarded as the mainstay of President Saddam Hussein's government.

The U.S. and Britain would then issue an ultimatum to the Baghdad government, Al-Hayat reported.

- In the second stage, if Baghdad does not respond to demands, the American and British air forces would hit presidential palaces and Iraq's infrastructure, including the bridges that were destroyed in the 1991 Gulf War but repaired since.

After the second phase, "a harsher list of demands" would be delivered to Iraq.

- Finally, if Baghdad did not respond satisfactorily, the U.S. and British forces would land troops in Iraq to attack "sensitive sites."

The U.S. and Britain drew up the plan during the earlier crisis, it said. That standoff ended in February when U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited Baghdad to broker a compromise