Marines ‘Hit’ Beach in a Trial Run for Attack From the Sea : Military: Hundreds storm a remote coastline in the exercise. It may be a bold new signal to the Iraqis.

Part of a massive Marine unit deployed off the coast of Saudi Arabia stormed a remote beachhead by sea and air Sunday in a trial run preparing them for a possible amphibious assault against Iraqi forces in Kuwait, according to military sources.

The operation at an undisclosed location used landing craft and more than 90 planes and helicopters to carry hundreds of Marines ashore in a training mission scheduled to last for several more days, the officials said.

A military spokesman here described the landing as a “routine amphibious training exercise,” but other officials said it was intended in large part to familiarize shipboard troops with the desert conditions they would encounter in any assault here.

The operation comes amid increasing indications that the Bush Administration is looking with favor on an early-war strategy, including a blunt warning Friday from a top Administration official that Iraq’s pillaging of Kuwait had made war more likely.

The landing on foreign soil by the Marine’s 4th Expeditionary Brigade is perhaps the boldest in a series of military moves--including the advance of the aircraft carrier Independence to a position inside the Persian Gulf--that appear to send an unambiguous signal about U.S. willingness to use force against Iraq.

Asked whether the training mission was intended to prepare for a possible landing in Iraq or Kuwait, a Marine Corps official here said only, “We do not speculate or comment on future ship or amphibious operations.”

Separately Sunday, Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz, the Saudi defense minister, told reporters traveling with him in southern Saudi Arabia that “when the doors for peace are closed, the ghosts of war will start appearing.”

But Prince Sultan made clear that Saudi Arabia intends to keep its distance from Israel, despite the possibility that country, too, might be drawn into a war against Iraq.

“Israel must stay very far away, totally, from the gulf problem,” Sultan said.

“We will not allow Israel--regardless of how severe inter-Arab conflicts are--to defend us against Iraq or against anybody else,” he said. “Let it be very well known and very well understood.”

The increased attention to the prospect of an amphibious landing by U.S. forces follows sharp increases of Iraqi troop strength apparently designed to counter the threat posed by U.S. ground forces now based in Saudi Arabia.

A number of military experts have suggested that the United States could best overcome Iraq’s armored defenses by attacking from several directions at once, including a thrust from the sea with specially trained amphibious forces.

Marine and Navy commanders here have hinted at a similar strategy, noting publicly that Iraq, by conquering Kuwait and its extensive coastline, had left itself open to attack from the sea.

The 10,000-strong Marine force involved in the landing operation for several weeks has been floating in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea as part of an 18-ship task force assembled for Operation Desert Shield.

The unit, armed with M-60 tanks, has the capacity to storm beaches by landing craft, small boat or helicopter, with air cover provided by ship-based Harrier jets. All these played a role in the operation, military officials said.

In describing the amphibious landing, officials here said that it had been scheduled to take place at a “remote beachhead” as part of a seven-day training mission. They declined for security reasons to further specify the time or location. Other sources said that the operation took place Sunday.

Because the coastline near where the ships are believed to be operating is divided among a number of countries, the sources said they could not be sure on whose territory the landing had taken place. But they said they were confident that the United States had obtained the necessary permission from the proper host government.

To defend against the U.S. threat from the sea, Iraq reportedly has moved batteries of Silkworm missiles to Kuwait. But in interviews 10 days ago on board the amphibious ship Nassau, commanders of the floating task force expressed confidence that a Marine landing force could overcome any such obstacles.

“You have a very potent package if you need to use it,” said Maj. Gen. Henry W. Jenkins, commander of the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

Navy Rear Adm. John LaPlante, the overall commander of the 17,000-member task force, noted that Iraq, a country with little coastline of its own, had been thrust into a vulnerable position by seeking to take possession of Kuwait.

Noting that Iraq now must build substantial coastal defenses, LaPlante said: “I don’t think they’re very good at it.” By contrast, he said, amphibious attacks are a mission that U.S. Marine and Navy forces “do for a living.”