A U.S. war game believed to be a rehearsal for an invasion of Iraq started Monday in Qatar with senior commanders and battle planners conducting a computer-assisted exercise aimed at improving their ability to fight a war in the region.
Led by Gen. Tommy Franks, the chief of U.S. Central Command, exercise Internal Look involves Army commanders in Kuwait, Navy and Marine officers in Bahrain, the Air Force's Saudi Arabian headquarters, Franks' permanent office in Florida and the Pentagon, a Central Command official said. It started shortly after 0430GMT.
"Internal Look has begun and is proceeding on schedule," said Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic communications for Central Command. "This exercise gives General Franks and the battle staff an opportunity to learn new lessons and will improve the command's ability to win on the modern battlefield."
According to AP, military officials have refused to disclose details of the exercise, but the timing and location have prompted speculation that it will test a battle plan for invading Iraq.
The seven- to 10-day exercise is conducted 24 hours a day.
Franks launched the exercise from a portable, high-tech war room that has been flown to Qatar from Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida. He was accompanied by 50 senior officers who make up the command's intelligence and operations staff.
Franks urged his staff to use the exercise to make smarter decisions, more quickly and more efficiently, Wilkinson said.
Opposition
Three top Iraqi opposition leaders held talks in Tehran Monday ahead of a long-delayed meeting of opponents of President Saddam Hussein due to start in London later this week. The opposition has yet to agree on who will attend and issue invitations.
Ahmad Chalabi, head of the pro-Western Iraqi National Congress (INC), met Iran-based Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir Hakim who claims support from Iraq's Shi'ite Muslims and Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, also visiting Iran.
The London conference is due to establish a leadership committee over the Iraqi opposition after Hakim, Barzani and the other main Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani rejected Chalabi's aim of setting up a government in exile.
Weapons report
Meanwhile, U.N. experts in New York and Vienna studied Iraq's weapons dossier on Monday to establish whether it has been a full disclosure and to see how close Baghdad came to making an atomic bomb.
The Security Council agreed to give the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain full access to Iraq's arms declaration, UN officials and diplomats said.
The other 10 council members, will only see the declaration once it is translated, analyzed and gleaned of sensitive material - including possible instructions on bomb-making.
Washington noted on Monday it would wait and see what was in the 12,000-page document flown from Baghdad on Sunday. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on a visit to Tokyo that President Bush "has patience." "He would much prefer to have Iraq disarm herself," Armitage told reporters. "But, as the president said, 'If Iraq won't disarm, then eventually, Iraq will be disarmed."' (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
