In 1998, during Operation Desert Fox, a British missile sheared off the top of a military hangar in the southern part of Iraq and exposed a carefully guarded secret - a new breed of Iraqi drone aircraft - one that defense analysts currently believe was specially modified to spread deadly chemicals and germs, according to The Washington Post. Officials: Washington shipping military equipment to Kuwait for army exercise
In its Thursday edition, the daily reported that up to a dozen of the unmanned planes were spotted inside the hangar, each one fitted with spray nozzles and wing-mounted tanks that could carry up to eighty gallons of liquid anthrax. If flown at low altitudes under proper conditions, a single drone could unleash a toxic cloud engulfing several city blocks, a high-ranking British defense official said, as he termed them, "drones of death."
Washington and London have charged that the Iraqi president is working to obtain chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons. Bush said on Wednesday he would meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair this weekend to discuss possible military action to oust the Iraqi leader. Bush told reporters he had invited Blair to the Camp David presidential retreat to discuss Iraq on Saturday.
According to United States and allied intelligence officials as well as United Nations documents, Iraq has worked with seemingly mixed success to diversify a collection of delivery vehicles that now includes not only Scud missiles, which it launched during the 1991 Gulf War, but also a wide-range of novel machines for spraying pathogens and poisons from aircraft. It is noteworthy to add that Iraq deployed, but never used chemical and biological weapons during the 1991 war.
Equipment to Kuwait
United States military equipment, including tracked combat vehicles, was set to be shipped to Kuwait this week for a US Army exercise involving over 2,000 US troops, military officials said Wednesday.
It was the third commercially chartered shipment of arms to the region in recent weeks. However, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan said the latest shipment was part of a "normal rotation of forces going to Kuwait."
According to AFP, he said the equipment was for Operation Desert Spring, a months-long training exercise involving over 2,000 troops.
The US Army routinely rotates armored or mechanized infantry battalions into Kuwait for extended training on desert ranges near the Iraqi border. But the size of the forces rotating in has been beefed up since the beginning of the year, Lapan stated.
Normally, they train with tanks and armored vehicles already stationed in the country. The army has enough Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles in Kuwait to equip an armored brigade.
But for these training maneuvers, the army is bringing in additional equipment. A spokesman for the US Central Command declined to comment.
A cargo ship is due to pick up the equipment as early as Wednesday at an undisclosed port in the southeastern United States, said Marge Holtz, a spokeswoman for the Military Sealift Command. The shipment includes 67 tracked vehicles such as Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, as well as wheeled vehicles, containerized cargo and general cargo, Holtz said. (Albawaba.com)
