UAE Sends Troops to Defend KuwaitUnited Arab Emirates Deploys Troops to Defend Kuwait Ahead of Possible War in Iraq
The Associated Press
KUWAIT CITY Feb. 23 ?
Hundreds of infantrymen from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Kuwait on Sunday with tanks and armored personnel carriers, part of a security force deployed by Kuwait's neighbors ahead of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
Kuwaiti and UAE military officials here said the troops are part of Peninsula Shield, a military operation ordered by the Gulf Cooperation Council to protect Kuwait from a possible Iraqi attack should President Bush order American forces into Iraq.
The GCC is a loose political and economic alliance of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
But a UAE Defense Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the troops who arrived in Kuwait on Sunday were not part of the Peninsula Shield arrangement. He said they belonged to a 4,000-strong force being deployed under a bilateral UAE-Kuwait agreement.
The discrepancies in the officials' remarks could not be reconciled immediately.
UAE is deploying a mechanized infantry brigade of around 3,000 men backed by Apache attack helicopters, Leclerc tanks, amphibious armored vehicles, two missile boats and support ships, said Col. Fahad Keti, a spokesman for the UAE army.
The Peninsula Shield force will not exceed 4,500 troops, of which 70 percent will be Saudi, Saudi chief of staff Gen. Saleh bin Ali al-Muhaya said in remarks published Saturday. Saudi officials could not be reached to confirm the report.
More than 70,000 U.S. troops are training in the Kuwaiti desert in preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq. Bush has threatened to use force to disarm Baghdad of weapons of mass destruction if it does not do so voluntarily according to U.N. resolutions.
Iraq denies it has such weapons.