- The United States is said to have deployed Patriot missiles
near the Kuwaiti border with Iraq as part of preparations for a possible
war against President Saddam Hussein that preceded the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks on the United States.
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- The Patriot missile site was said to be 63 kilometers
from the Iraqi border at the Salim Al Sabah air base.
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- The London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily published on
Feb. 8 a satellite photograph that the newspaper said was that of a U.S.
Patriot missile defense battery in a Kuwaiti air base. The newspaper said
that over the last year both the United States and Britain have installed
the missile battery in an effort to convert the Kuwaiti facility into an
allied forward base in any war against Iraq.
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- The missile battery was said to be located in the Kuwaiti
air base of Salim Al Sabah, 63 kilometers from the Iraqi border. The facility
has served as an early-warning radar station for U.S. and allied forces
since 1992.
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- Gulf sources said the Pentagon is transferring military
commands from the United States to Kuwait in preparation for war against
Iraq. The move has resulted in the relocation of more than 2,000 U.S. military
personnel to the sheikdom since September.
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- The Salim base is being converted into a facility that
can accommodate air and ground troops, aircraft as well as missile batteries.
The base is one of several in the area that is being expanded and developed.
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- The newspaper said one photograph of the missile site,
described as being 350 hectares in size, was obtained from the U.S. commercial
Ikonos satellite. The site was photographed in June 2001.
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- Around the missile site were four Kuwaiti and allied
combat jets. A-Sharq Al Awsat said it obtained three satellite photographs
from the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists. Two of the
photographs, the newspaper said, came from a U.S. spy satellite.
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- Canada and Germany are also joining U.S.-led forces in
Kuwait. Germany has transferred a unit to protect against an Iraqi weapons
of mass destruction attack on the sheikdom. Gulf defense sources said that
in March, Germany - with a contingent of 250 soldiers - will lead an exercise
for Kuwait and other allied forces to protect against nuclear, biological
and chemical weapons.
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