45,000 New U.S. Troops Reach Gulf as Iraqis Extend Defensive Lines

About 45,000 fresh American troops have poured into the Persian Gulf region since late last week, while about 5,000 additional Iraqi infantrymen have arrived in the Kuwait “theater of operations” to help extend defensive entrenchments on the eve of a possible gulf war, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

“We don’t see any evidence they’re in any way pulling out,” Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said as the deadline approached.

Pentagon officials said the new deployments have increased the U.S. force in the gulf to 415,000, while the number of Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait and southern Iraq has grown to 545,000. U.S. allies have sent a total of 265,000 troops.

American B-52 bombers, which would drop thousands of tons of bombs on Iraqi fortifications in the early phases of a war, reportedly have been flown to the Middle East in recent days from their bases in Guam and Diego Garcia.

An armada of six U.S. aircraft carriers closed in on Iraq and Kuwait, bringing almost 500 warplanes within range of airfields, bridges, chemical weapons factories and communications sites that would be struck early in a war.

In the Persian Gulf, two aircraft carriers bore down on Kuwait as the Ranger joined the Midway inside the narrow body of water.

Meanwhile, the carrier America passed through the Suez Canal to join three other carriers in the Red Sea.

Iraqi forces remained in what Williams called an “essentially defensive” posture across the Kuwaiti border.

In addition to extending defensive trenches westward into Iraq--an apparent response to reports that U.S.-led troops would attempt to swing around their fortifications--the Iraqis were digging secondary defensive lines, military officials said.

The secondary defenses could permit Iraqi troops to fall back in the face of an assault and continue to inflict heavy casualties on the U.S.-led coalition forces, officials said.