U.S. Planning to Send 3,000 More Troops to Gulf

The United States, at the request of U.S. commanders in the Persian Gulf, is planning to send 3,000 more ground troops to this anxious nation, where Defense Secretary William S. Cohen stopped Monday on his swing through the region in a bid to build support for possible airstrikes against Iraq.

The troops, based in Ft. Hood, Texas, will give U.S. forces almost a brigade of infantry in Kuwait when they arrive in the next week to 10 days. Added to 1,500 soldiers now in Kuwait and 2,200 Marines en route, the latest proposed deployment will bring to almost 6,700 the total number of ground troops in the region.

The commanders also requested a large shipment of gas masks.

The goal is to “discourage any creative thinking on [Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s] part” about attacking his southern neighbor, which he invaded in 1990, if the United States and its allies unleash an air campaign against the regime in Baghdad to compel it to allow unrestricted U.N. weapons inspections, a senior U.S. defense official said.

After meetings among Cohen, the Kuwaiti emir and Kuwait’s defense chiefs, a U.S. official said the Clinton administration had agreed to send a “substantial” supply of gas masks to this capital, which has grown increasingly nervous about a possible Iraqi chemical or biological attack.

Cohen has been considering requests from several Gulf states and Israel for equipment and medical supplies that might be needed if there was an attack by Baghdad, which is believed capable of loading its few remaining Scud missiles with chemical or germ-warfare payloads.

He has not yet given formal approval to the request by the U.S. regional military commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni, for more troops. But since the latest U.S.-Iraq standoff began last fall, Cohen has approved nearly all, if not all, requests for troops or materiel, a senior U.S. military officer said.

The plans to bolster the Kuwait ground forces came four days after the Pentagon said it would send a Marine Amphibious Ready Group with 2,200 ground troops on four ships to the Gulf to deter an Iraqi attack and help in any coastal rescue missions.

Monday’s military developments occurred even as lawmakers in Washington slowed their rush to approve a nonbinding resolution supporting President Clinton if he employs military force against Hussein, and as new confusion dogged Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan about Annan’s possible peacemaking role in the Iraqi standoff.

In Kuwait, U.S. officials said the added infantry units they are seeking would be deployed at Camp Doha, where the Army has amassed a cache of ready emergency materiel--from tanks to armored personnel carriers to small arms. The two units would join a battalion that has been training at Camp Doha in an exercise dubbed “Intrinsic Action.”

The added ground troops would round out a force that already includes about 30,000 military personnel, two aircraft carrier battle groups and 400 warplanes. More than 500,000 troops were present in 1991 when a U.S.-led force swept into Iraq to repel Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

A top American defense official said that when the latest military contingent arrives, the U.S. and its allies will have “enough force to do what we need to do and take care of any contingencies.”

Cohen, who in three days of travel has met only lukewarm sentiment for possible military action against Iraq, on Monday found two enthusiastic sources of support: Kuwaiti officials; and U.S. and Kuwaiti fliers at Ahmed Al Jaber air base. On Sunday, in the face of Saudi resistance to prospective military action against Iraq, Cohen announced that the Pentagon would forgo asking Saudi Arabia to let U.S. warplanes use its bases to strike Iraq.

But the Kuwaitis--whose small nation is the only one in the region to endorse the possible air campaign--spoke warmly of their military alliance with the U.S. and emphasized the need to contain Hussein. At a news conference, Sheik Salem Sabah al Salem al Sabah, the deputy prime minister and defense minister, recalled that 604 Kuwaitis were taken prisoner during Iraq’s 1991 occupation and are still unaccounted for.

On Capitol Hill, Republican leaders still expect overwhelming approval of a resolution endorsing U.S. military action against Iraq. But they signaled Monday that they feel less urgency for a swift vote. Instead, there is a growing desire for a full discussion of U.S. short- and long-term options on Iraq.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott--the Mississippi Republican who last week called for efforts to topple Hussein’s regime and who, like his counterparts in the House, appeared eager for Congress to act--said he now favors taking more time to deal with the Iraq situation.

“I do think that there are a number of things that can be done between just pure diplomacy and a military action,” he said. “We should be more supportive of democratic factions wherever we can find them in Iraq. We could consider expanding the ‘no-fly’ . . . regions.” He also mentioned the possibility of an intelligence operation against Iraq and a “Radio Free Iraq” to counteract Hussein’s “ability to spew his venom to his people.”

A nonbinding Senate resolution backing military strikes could come up for a vote this week, Lott said. House leaders say they will take up the matter after the Senate acts. Congressional leaders say they are working closely with the White House on the timing of the votes.

The exact language of the resolution is still being crafted, with Republicans searching for a way to stop short of giving a blanket endorsement to military action.

While Lott talked about nonmilitary approaches, one of the Senate’s best-known veterans, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), called for a series of decisive military strikes. “The only viable military option is to inflict serious damage on the Iraqi Republican Guard and destroy the compounds and ‘palaces’ Saddam has sought to protect,” he said on the Senate floor. “Ineffectual cruise missile and air strikes such as characterized past punitive actions, particularly in 1996 when 27 cruise missiles were launched against largely insignificant targets, will once again prove counterproductive.”

On Monday, the United Nations’ Annan canceled his planned visits to Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan so he could remain at U.N. headquarters “until the [Iraq] crisis has been defused,” a spokesman said. His trip may be rescheduled for later in the year, and Annan left open the possibility he would go to Baghdad if the Security Council directed him.

Pressure has been building from Russia and other sources for Annan to go to Baghdad to try to broker an end to the inspections confrontation. But U.N. officials said he does not want to go without assurances that Hussein would agree to meet Security Council demands that he open all facilities to U.N. arms experts without restrictions.

Annan reacted hours after Yeltsin created diplomatic confusion by asserting, while on an official visit to Rome, that he had persuaded Annan to go to Baghdad to mediate. Then, as often happens with Yeltsin’s grand but not-so-accurate pronouncements, Kremlin aides were forced to backtrack.

At the U.N., Security Council members Monday began considering a major expansion of a program that lets Iraq sell a limited amount of oil and use the receipts to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies under U.N. supervision. Annan has recommended increasing sales from $2 billion to $5.2 billion in the next six months and using the money to repair water purification, sanitation and power facilities in Iraq, as well as for food and hospital supplies.

There was no action on the proposal as diplomats sought to work out U.S. and Iraqi objections to parts of the plan. The U.S. wants strong U.N. controls on any reconstruction of Iraqi power stations; Iraq objects to the U.N. program, saying it intrudes in its internal affairs.

On the diplomatic front Monday, Italy seemed to be balking while Canada announced it would support prospective U.S. military actions against Iraq; U.N. sources indicated that neither Russian nor French efforts to sway Hussein in Baghdad were having much success.

Bill Richardson, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., announced he will travel to Tokyo and Beijing on Wednesday to seek more backing for the U.S. position.

Hussein’s regime conducted its own diplomatic campaign Monday, dispatching envoys to Arab capitals in search of support. Iraq also reportedly was scattering its elite Republican Guard to protect it.

As for Cohen, he got a rousing greeting in Kuwait at the air base, 70 miles south of the Iraq border, where U.S. fliers in the 4406 Operations Group are preparing for possible action with six radar-eluding F-117A Stealth fighters, as well as A-10 Warthog planes and F-16 fighter aircraft.

On a dais draped with camouflage, he declared to the 1,100 U.S. Air Force personnel at the base: “You are the best and brightest America has to offer. You are great warriors--you are great diplomats too.”

Behind him, past security fences draped with concertina wire, was a stark reminder of the savage recent past: hardened aircraft bunkers that had been punctured by U.S. precision bombs in 1991, when they sheltered Iraqi aircraft.

Despite the long wait they have already endured, the Air Force personnel themselves said there was enthusiasm for the job. “We’re ready to kick butts and take names later,” said Col. James Coning, 57, a top logistics official from a Columbus, Ohio, Air National Guard unit. “Just turn us loose.”

Times staff writers Richard Boudreaux in Rome, Marc Lacey in Washington and Craig Turner at the United Nations contributed to this report.