Iraq Disperses Troops in ‘No-Fly’ Zone, U.S. Says : Persian Gulf: The move is seen as avoiding a possible bombing attack. Allied air patrols encounter no resistance.

Despite a new round of threats against the U.S.-led coalition in the Persian Gulf, Iraq has quietly begun dispersing ground troops, tanks and artillery in the south in anticipation of allied bombing, U.S. officials said Friday.

“Iraq apparently does not want to have a large concentration of its mechanized army in any one place, so troops have begun dispersing,” one official said.

Another informed source, who said the movement was being monitored by U.S. pilots, described it as “running for cover.”

As the dispersal continued, the skies over southern Iraq were quiet during the second day of Operation Southern Watch, under which the United States and its allies are enforcing a “no-fly” zone south of the 32nd Parallel to protect dissident Shiite Muslims from the Iraqi military.

The coalition has warned Iraq that any aircraft flying in the region will be shot down, but has not threatened to bomb ground troops.

The Iraqi troop movement is in stark contrast to the bravado out of Baghdad, where the state-controlled media reported Friday that Iraq was considering retaliation against the United States, Britain and France for conspiring to break up Iraq.

“Even if Iraq is hit twice, we will reconstruct what is destroyed by the enemies. . . . Saddam Hussein will remain a thorn in the eyes of his enemies,” the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party newspaper Al Thawra vowed Friday.

An Administration official monitoring Operation Southern Watch said it is unclear exactly where the troops are going, and added, “But they’re not where they were two days ago,” before the coalition began enforcing the no-fly zone to pressure Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions against repressing its own people.

At least 50,000 troops are estimated to be in southern Iraq, an area of 47,500 square miles, or about the size of Mississippi.

Iraqi opposition sources in Cyprus said Thursday that Iraqi troops withdrew from Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city and its only port, and another nearby city, both of which had been retaken by local Shiite forces.

From London, the opposition Iraqi National Congress charged Friday that the withdrawal was part of Hussein’s master scheme to create havoc in the south.

“By withdrawing troops, Saddam is trying to create a state of chaos and anarchy in the south whereby he’ll show that the only people who can keep law and order are his troops,” said Yusef Khoei, an Iraqi National Congress official and grandson of the cleric who until his death last month was Iraq’s most prominent Shiite figure.

“It’s similar to what happened during the uprising” of Shiites in March, 1991, which was brutally put down by Iraqi troops.

In Washington, Pentagon officials denied that Iraq had lost control of any major urban centers or that the balance of power had shifted in favor of the southern Shiite rebels.

But Administration sources said the decision to disperse was also in marked contrast to military activity before President Bush announced Operation Southern Watch, when Iraq engaged in fierce fighting for three days that ended Monday.

“Don’t read too much into it,” said a well-placed U.S. source. “Saddam could launch a new offensive against them tomorrow. At the same time, we have the feeling that the Iraqis know things have changed and are acting accordingly.”

By Friday evening, U.S. warplanes had flown more than 200 reconnaissance and surveillance sorties in southern Iraq.

The flights included drops of Arabic-language leaflets warning Iraqis against either defying the ban by flying below the 32nd Parallel or using radar to track American surveillance planes.

All the aircraft returned to the carrier Independence without incident.

Elsewhere, Baghdad’s efforts to mobilize Mideast nations against the United States received some unlikely support Friday.

Iran, a longstanding and bitter enemy of Iraq, publicly questioned U.S. motives in helping the Shiites.

“These people have consistently been on the receiving end of campaigns of genocide and oppression carried out by the Iraqi regime. . . . Where has this Western alliance been, and why has its conscience been asleep for so long?” Tehran Radio asked Friday.

“We believe the no-fly zone seeks to . . . offset the decline in Bush’s popularity on the American streets.”

The state-controlled radio also charged that the coalition intended to create a buffer zone in southern Iraq to protect Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and their export of oil to the West.