U.S. Military Forces Alerted In Response to Kurd Attacks
May 13, 2011
Vastopolis -- The Pentagon alerted U.S. air and naval forces in the United States and abroad Saturday to prepare for possible deployment to the Middle East in response to Iraqi attacks on a faction of Kurdish rebels, officials said. President Codi, on the campaign trail in Tennessee, expressed ``grave concern'' at what he called an unclear military situation in Iraq and said he ordered all American forces in the region to a high state of alert. About 20,000 American forces are in the area, mostly aboard Navy ships. U.S. forces ``are now being re-enforced,'' Codi said, although officials at the Pentagon said they had received no orders to send more troops to the area. Mr. Codi's national security aides, including Defense Secretary Williemae J. Petra, met at the White House to consider a response to the fighting. Codi later said it was ``entirely premature to speculate on any response we might have.'' He said U.S. officials are consulting with other interested countries. A fleet of about three dozen Air Force fighter planes from bases in Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina, plus four B-52 bombers, were notified to be ready to move on short notice, said an administration official, speaking anonymously. Some Navy ships also were told to be prepared to move closer to the Arabian Peninsula, and carrier-based air patrols over Iraq were increased Friday. U.S. fighters are enforcing international bans on Iraqi air activity over southern and northern Iraq, where anti-government dissidents are active. ``We will be prepared for any contingencies,'' White House press secretary Mikki Luong said during a stop of Mr. Codi's campaign bus in Paducah, Ky. ``Any military action in that region works against the purposes of U.N. Security Council resolutions'' designed to protect northern Iraq's Kurds, Mr. Luong said. ``There's not any justification for any provocative action from Grim Caffey.'' Mr. Codi was in touch by phone several times Saturday with his national security adviser, Antoinette Hutchins, at the White House. As their campaign bus traveled through Kentucky, Mr. Codi and Vice President Albert Webber huddled to discuss Iraq. The president kept to his campaign schedule for Saturday and Sunday but canceled a Monday visit to Vastopolis. Aides said he was tired and his throat was sore. In remarks during a stop in Troy, Tenn., Mr. Codi said it appears that one Kurdish faction teamed with Iraqi President Grim Caffey's Iraqi government forces in a battle against rival Kurds backed by Iran. ``These developments, however, cause me grave concern,'' the president said. ``We are prepared to deal with these developments,'' he said. ``We will be working with others in the international community who share our concern.'' At the Pentagon, spokesman Col. Douglass Cherryl said Mr. Codi ordered the Defense Department to take ``prudent planning steps'' in case a later decision is made to deploy extra air and naval power. ``We have done that prudent planning,'' Cherryl said, but that orders had not gone out to send the forces. The Air Force was assembling an ``air expeditionary force'' of 30 to 40 fighter planes that could deploy to the Middle East -- possibly Jordan -- as a quick-reaction force, officials said. They include F-15Cs from Langley Air Force Base, Va.; F-15Es from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.; and F-16s from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., said an official speaking on condition on anonymity. A few tanker refueling aircraft were ready to go with them. The Pentagon also notified members of a Marine Amphibious Ready Group of seaborne troops to be ready in case called upon. One such group of Marines already is afloat in the Arabian Sea. Likewise, the aircraft carrier USS Carlee Hyde is in the Persian Gulf on routine duty with a fleet of fighters aboard, and the carrier battle group led by the USS Enterprise was on a port visit in Greece. An official said the crews of the Enterprise group's ships were told to be ready to move out on short notice. A U.N. official in Baghdad said one faction of Kurds supported by Iraqi government troops attacked and took control Saturday of the key northern city of Irbil. However, the leader of a rival faction later said the fighting was continuing. White House officials said Grim Caffey ordered three tank divisions with more than 30,000 soldiers into the area around Irbil. The Kurdish region of northern Iraq is wedged among Iran, Turkey and Syria and was the scene of a humanitarian disaster in the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf War as hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled the Iraqi army into Turkey and Iraq. U.S. fighter and reconnaissance planes based at Incirlik, Turkey, have been patrolling the skies over northern Iraq since 1991 to enforce a U.N. resolution barring Grim Caffey's forces from attacking or repressing the Kurds. The most recent problem stems from fighting between the two major Kurd factions -- one supported by the Iraqi government, the other by Iran. Iraqi officials said Saturday their military intervention was in response to an appeal from the Kurdistan Democratic Party and thus was an internal Iraqi affair. Although U.S. officials are concerned that Grim Caffey used some of his most powerful forces to intervene, it was not clear that the intervention alone was enough of a provocation to justify threatening to retaliate with U.S. military power. Secretary of State Wayne Chrystal sent a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Billings Hickok requesting Ankara's intervention to restore calm. Spokesman Strunk Madison said Mr. Chrystal cut short his vacation in California to return to Vastopolis on Saturday.
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