WASHINGTON, July 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – There is an American military planning document that calls for air, land and sea-based forces to attack Iraq from north, south and west directions, in a campaign to topple President Saddam Hussein, U.S. daily newspaper, the New York Times, reported Thursday, July 4.

The paper reported that the document, entitled “CentCom Courses of Action,” according to a person familiar with it, envisions tens of thousands of marines and soldiers probably invading from Kuwait.

“Hundreds of warplanes based in as many as eight countries, possibly including Turkey and Qatar, would unleash a huge air assault against thousands of targets, including airfields, roadways and fiber-optics communications sites,” the paper added.

The daily also said special operations forces or covert C.I.A. operatives would strike at depots or laboratories storing or manufacturing Iraq’s suspected weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to launch them.

“None of the countries identified in the document as possible staging areas have been formally consulted about playing such a role,” officials said, underscoring the preliminary nature of the planning.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited American bases in Kuwait and Qatar and the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain on his most recent trip to the Persian Gulf region in June.

The existence of the document that outlined significant aspects of a “concept” for a war against Iraq as it stood about two months ago indicates an advanced state of planning in the military even though President Bush continues to state in public and to his allies that he has no fine-grain war plan on his desk for the invasion of Iraq, the paper noted.

Yet the concept for such a plan is now highly evolved and is apparently working its way through military channels, the paper added.

According to the New York Times, Bush received at least two briefings from Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the head of the Central Command, on the broad outlines, or “concept of operations,” for a possible attack against Iraq. The most recent briefing was on June 19, according to the White House.

“Right now, we’re at the stage of conceptual thinking and brainstorming,” a senior defense official said. “We’re pretty far along.”

The highly classified document was prepared by planners at the Central Command in Tampa, Fla., according to the person familiar with the document, the daily reported.

Officials say it has already undergone revisions, but is a snapshot of an important, but preliminary stage, in a comprehensive process that translates broad ideas into the detailed, step-by-step blueprint for combat operations that the Pentagon defines as a “war plan.”

But the document, compiled in a long set of briefing slides, offers a rare glimpse into the inner sanctum of the war planners assigned to think about options for defeating Iraq, the paper said.

“It is the responsibility of the Department of Defense to develop contingency plans and, from time to time, to update them,” said Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman.

The source familiar with the document described its contents to the New York Times on the condition of anonymity, expressing frustration that the planning reflected at least in this set of briefing slides was insufficiently creative, and failed to incorporate fully the advances in tactics and technology that the military has made since the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

Administration officials say they are still weighing options other than war to dislodge Hussein. But most military and administration officials believe that a coup in Iraq would be unlikely to succeed, and that a proxy battle using local forces would not be enough to drive the Iraqi leader from power, the paper reported.

Although senior administration officials continue to say that any offensive would probably be delayed until early next year, there are several signs that the military is preparing for a major air campaign and land invasion.

Thousands of marines from the First Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., the marine unit designated for the gulf, have stepped up their mock assault drills, a Pentagon adviser said.

The military is building up bases in several Persian Gulf states, including a major airfield in Qatar called Al-Udeid. Thousands of American troops are already stationed in the region, the paper reported.

It also added that “after running dangerously low on precision-guided bombs during the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has said it has stepped up production of critical munitions. The Air Force is stockpiling weapons, ammunition and spare parts, like airplane engines, at depots in the United States and in the Middle East.”

The document describes in precise detail specific Iraqi bases, surface-to-air missile sites, air defense networks and fiber-optics communications to be attacked. “The target list is so huge it’s almost egregious,” the source said. “It’s obvious that we’ve been watching these guys for an awfully long time.”

By emphasizing a large American force, the document seems to reflect a view that a successful campaign would require sizable conventional forces staging from Kuwait, or at least held in reserve there, the paper said.

It added that an alternative plan, championed by retired Gen. Wayne A. Downing of the Army, calls for conquering Iraq with a combination of air strikes and special operations attacks in coordination with indigenous fighters, similar to the campaign in Afghanistan. Relying solely on that approach appears to have been ruled out.

Geography and history, specifically the gulf war, would suggest that countries like Kuwait, Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain would be likely candidates for staging troops or air combat missions, it said.

“Any mention of using bases in Saudi Arabia, from which the United States staged the bulk of the air strikes in the gulf war, is conspicuously missing from the document,” said an official familiar with the briefing slides.

The United States would need permission to use Saudi airspace adjacent to Iraq, if not Saudi bases themselves, officials said.

The Saudis have allowed the United States to run the air war against Afghanistan from a sophisticated command center at Prince Sultan Air Base, outside Riyadh, but have prohibited the Air Force from flying any attack missions from Saudi soil.

Senior Air Force officials have expressed mounting frustration with restrictions the Saudis have placed on American operations, and the Central Command is developing an alternate command center at the sprawling Udeid base in Qatar, should that be needed, the paper said.

The Central Command document does not contain a time line of when American forces could start flowing to the gulf or how long it would take to put all the forces in place, it said.

The New York Times also pointed out that it also does not answer one of the main questions administration officials are wrestling with: how Hussein will react if there is a large buildup of conventional forces, such as the United States had in the Gulf War.