Iraqi Troops Secretly Infiltrate In Preparation For Attack On Israel

Geschrieben von Freddie am 28. Juli 2001 18:12:18:


Bei dieser Meldung könnte es sich um ein Gerücht handeln, die mir bisher
unbekannte Seite Debka scheint nicht zuverlässig zu sein:

At this point I consider the following allegations from DEBKAfile, whose
web site is at http://www.debka.com/, to be completely unverifiable. The
main problem I've always had with this Israeli web site is that it divulges
nothing about who runs and controls DEBKAfile other than:
"DEBKAfile's editorial team is led by two experienced foreign
correspondents and employs top notch contributors in the world's hot
spots." Uh huh. And who are these "two experienced foreign
correspondents," and what are their backgrounds? Also, who are the "top
notch contributors in the world's hot spots" that are employed by
DEBKAfile, and what are their backgrounds?

Nun die Meldung:


Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has secretly dispatched troops across the
frontier in Jordan in preparation for an attack on Israel, according to the
intelligence sources of DEBKA-Net-Weekly.

Iraq military units have been infiltrating neighboring Jordan for the past
10 days, according to the report. Their mission, say DEBKA sources, is
to reach the Israeli border, cross the Jordan River and move into the main
Palestinian cities of the West Bank - Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and
Bethlehem - and fight alongside the Palestinians.


The invading units are highly trained and well-equipped commandos able
to operate and survive in the field for long periods when cut off from
their headquarters and sources of supply, the report says. They are still
reportedly in the Jordanian desert.


The incursion was detected by Israeli reconnaissance planes and the Ofek
3 and 5 spy satellites.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately dispatched high-ranking
Israeli army intelligence officers to Amman to show King Abdullah of
Jordan the evidence of the Iraqi penetration to his kingdom.

The king at once proclaimed a supreme state of alert in all Jordanian
army units. Israel poured troops into the Jordan Valley region, deploying
them along the Jordan River and Jordanian frontier to block off the West
Bank to Iraqi penetration.

According to DEBKA-Net-Weeklyís military sources, the Iraqi forces'
first entry point in Jordan was Wadi El Murbah in the central zone of its
eastern border with Iraq. From there, they moved to Wadi Athner. A
second penetration area was Wadi Hawran in southwest Iraq, not far
from the points where the Iraqi, Saudi and Jordanian frontiers meet. The
Iraqi forces advanced through the wadi, bypassing Jabal Unayzah in Iraq
and coming out inside Jordanian territory near the town of Ruwayshid.

DEBKA's sources in Amman and Jerusalem report that both Israel and
Jordan view the Iraqi military operation as an act of war against them.
While maintaining official silence, certainly on the Iraqi invasion of
Jordan, both countries consider themselves in a state of war with Iraq.


Jordan did attempt in the first days of the incursion to encircle the Iraqi
intruders and capture them. But some days of intensive effort with
airborne support showed the Jordanian Special Forces that they are no
match for 1,000 to 1,500 crack Iraqi commandos. Jordanian fighter
planes sent into action were met by dozens of Iraqi fighters, put up over
the penetration regions, from Al-Baghdadi, the main Iraqi air base in the
central region, south of the town of Arrutba. When SA-6 surface-to-air
missile batteries at two recently reopened Iraqi air bases, H3 in the
northwest and H3 in the northeast, lit up their radar and locked on to the
elderly Jordanian aircraft, lacking electronic counter-measures, they
turned tail without snapping a single reconnaissance photo.

The Jordanian monarch then reportedly made his first approach to the
U.S. and Israel for help. Israeli reconnaissance aircraft, under the
umbrella of Israeli fighter planes, flew into Jordanian airspace. Whenever
they appeared, Iraqi planes bugged out and Iraqi missile battery operators
turned off their radar. Jordan also sent desert reconnaissance patrols and
intelligence units into Iraq to bring back information on supply lines and
reinforcements.

What they found sounded even louder alarm bells in Amman: The elite
Hummarabi division of the Republican Guard, equipped with T-72 tanks,
was now in position between the Jordanian border and the two H bases.
They also learned that the Iraqi army had sent at least four armored
infantry brigades into the area.

Equally troubling, at the beginning of the week, the Iraqi force already in
Jordan was sighted moving west, several groups having reached the sand
dunes and wadis known as Abu Haffrah, about 80 kilometers (50 miles)
inside Jordanian territory.

King Abdullah decided to take command of the Jordanian forces still
chasing the Iraqis intruders.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources report that the longer the king, a
career officer before he ascended the throne, spent out in the field in
eastern Jordan, the more anxious he became. He realized that overcoming
the Iraqi force already inside the kingdom would not end his worries.


There was still the next stage of Saddam's plan to face up to, as indicated
in the latest intelligence reports on his desk. Iraq had a second wave of
troops poised ready to cross into Jordan. Furthermore, Saddam Hussein
had secretly appointed his eldest son, Qusay, supreme commander of
what the Iraqi president was now describing as 'the Iraqi-Jordanian-Israeli
front'.

At a military ceremony attended by top Iraqi generals, Saddam, the
reports said, had sworn to spare neither effort nor money to provide
Qusay with any reinforcements he might request.

Qusay is said to have set up his headquarters at al-Bagdad air force base,
to the rear of the Iraqi forces deployed between the H bases and the
Jordanian border.

Jordanian intelligence also reported a large concentration of Iraqi forces
on the main roads leading from Iraq to Damascus and from Iraq to the
Golan Heights.

The Jordanian king was forced to realize that he was not dealing merely
with a small-scale invasion of mobile Iraqi forces, but with preparations
by his eastern neighbor for war on a regional scale, far beyond the scope
of the Jordanian army on its own.

What the intelligence reports omitted to mention was whether Saddam
Husseinís move had been coordinated with either ñ or both ñ Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

DEBKA-Weekly-Net sources in Jerusalem and Washington report that at
the beginning of the week, King Abdullah put his overseas connections to
the test. He asked President Bush for American intervention against the
Iraqi threat. He also turned to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to
invoke the secret Israeli-Jordanian defense pact signed by the late King
Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin that obliges Israel to act against military or
terrorist elements endangering the existence of the Kingdom of Jordan or
the Hashemite throne.

Several of DEBKA-Net-Weekly's sources report that Israel has taken
initial steps in fulfillment of its pact with Jordan. Those steps have
reportedly met with some resistance in Washington. When consulted, the
Bush administration indicated that however small, Israelís moves must be
kept utterly secret so as not to upset U.S. plans for Iraq.

The coming weekend will be crucial in this regard, according to the
report. The Jordanian-Iraqi clashes, if they continue, could be the first
military step on the road to a Middle East war - without the world even
noticing.


Antworten: