The huge off limits Doha camp is home to most of the 10,000 U.S. troops in Kuwait

OUTSIDE CAMP DOHA, Kuwait, September 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The largest staging post for U.S. ground forces in the Gulf region is strictly off limits to the public and with the drums of war sounding again over nearby Iraq, no exceptions are being made, news agencies reported.

Camp Doha sprawls over the desert away from the prying eyes of Kuwait City residents some 30 kilometers (20 miles) to the south, and lies just 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Even access to the main gate is blocked off to civilians who can see only blocks of low buildings. No media have been allowed in since last year.

Incongruously, a couple of kilometers beyond the back wall sits "Entertainment City", a popular funfair park set up before the American military arrived.

The huge camp, under tight security, is home to most of the 10,000 U.S. troops in Kuwait and is used to stockpile heavy equipment, including tanks and artillery.
 

The Pentagon confirmed last week that more U.S. military equipment, including tracked combat vehicles, was being shipped here for Operation Desert Spring, a months-long exercise involving more than 2,000 American troops.

However, the latest shipment was part of a "normal rotation of forces going to Kuwait," the Pentagon said, following President George W. Bush's line that no decision has been taken yet to launch an assault against Baghdad.
 

The Pentagon statement was echoed by Kuwaiti officials who work hard to maintain a low profile amid mounting speculation that a U.S. military strike in on Iraq in the name of toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is inevitable.

Officials in Kuwait have downplayed reports of the arrival of more military equipment, insisting it was not linked to Kuwait being used as a launch pad for any U.S.-led strike on Iraq.

"The [joint] military exercises should not be looked at from a political perspective," Kuwait's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Sabah al-Sabah says.

The exercises, Sheikh Mohammed adds, are "to develop Kuwait's military capabilities."
   

The latest shipment includes 67 tracked vehicles such as Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, as well as wheeled vehicles, containerized cargo and general cargo.

U.S. troops rotate in and out of Kuwait every six months for joint exercises, serving as an ongoing deterrent to Baghdad, in line with a defense pact signed with Washington after a U.S.-led coalition freed Kuwait in 1991 from a seven-month Iraqi occupation.

The troops, who keep out of the public view, are distributed between a U.S. encampment some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Kuwait's northern border with Iraq – which is out of bounds to anyone unauthorized – and Camp Doha further south. They will also use a newly-built camp in the south of the emirate.

For Kuwait residents, the sight of truckloads of military equipment being hauled around the country has been nothing out of the ordinary since 1991.

Despite reports over the summer of more intense movement of military equipment, officials here deny any unusual U.S. troop activity, insisting that Washington has not boosted its forces stationed in the emirate.

German and Czech soldiers specialized in nuclear, chemical and biological (NCB) warfare have spent months training closely with the U.S. army in Kuwait as well as with Kuwaiti troops, and exchanging NCB warfare skills.

But officials have even said these exercises are "not associated with any sort of future activity."
  

Last December, as the U.S. war in Afghanistan continued, the headquarters of the U.S. Armed Forces Central Command (USARCENT), which is responsible for all military forces from East Africa to Central Asia, was "temporarily" transferred to Kuwait.

Lieutenant-General Paul Mikolashek is the commanding general of USARCENT with responsibility for U.S. soldiers in Kuwait in addition to U.S. ground forces involved in Afghanistan and U.S. troops providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
 

On Sunday, September 8, the British newspaper, the Guardian, said that the U.S. has begun a massive military buildup required for a war against Iraq, ordering the movement of tens of thousands of men and tons of materiel to the Gulf region.

The paper said that there is compelling evidence which emerged in the past week that the U.S. has begun a military build-up not seen since the last Gulf war. Among the troops arriving in the region are an estimated 2,500 in Jordan, the paper said, adding that although officially en route for an exercise, sources claim their real purpose is to provide anti-missile protection in the Jordanian desert to give Israel advance warning against any Iraqi attack launched in response to a U.S. invasion.

There have also been persistent reports that U.S. and British Special Forces have established an operating base near Incerlik in Turkey, from which they have begun mounting liaison missions into northern Iraq in recent weeks, said the Guardian.

The slow but persistent build-up is reminiscent of the slow gathering of forces prior to the Gulf war, which was characterized by blanket official denials that the troop movements were related to preparations for war, it added.

In a further sign that U.S. and British forces are preparing for attacks on Iraq, allied aircraft struck a ground-based Iraqi anti-shipping missile site at Basra in the early hours of Sunday, said the Guardian, adding that the strike followed raids against Iraqi air defense sites last week that sources claim may have involved up to 100 planes.

Similar attacks have been carried out every few days this year. These types of attacks were common during the Clinton administration but were discontinued by President Bush because they were thought to be achieving little, it said.

Their resumption is part of the military and political preparation for a larger assault. Rather than starting a new war, an option for the supporters of 'regime change' is to ratchet up attacks a step at a time, until a final drive to Baghdad, reported the Guardian.

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