The state-of-the-art hospital vessel is set off to an undisclosed location

WASHINGTON, January 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A giant U.S. Navy hospital ship equipped to treat wounded soldiers will set sail for the Indian Ocean early Monday, January 6, as the United States continues to beef up its forces in the Gulf region ahead of a possible war with Iraq, the Navy announced.

The announcement followed an unconfirmed media report that U.S. special forces and CIA teams have already been secretly deployed to Iraq, despite President George W. Bush's repeated assurances that he had not yet decided whether to go to war with Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The floating 1,000-bed trauma center USNS Comfort will leave the port of Baltimore at 9:00 am (1400 GMT) for an undisclosed location near Southwest Asia "in support of the war on terror," said Marge Holtz, Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Navy's Sealift Command.

The mission will mark the first time a large U.S. hospital ship is being deployed in the area since the 1991 Gulf War, in which troops of a U.S.-led international coalition ejected Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait.

It will take the Comfort about three weeks to reach its secret destination, according to Holtz.

Although military officials remained tight-lipped about it, U.S. media reports indicated the Comfort's first stop was likely to be the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

The vessel has 12 fully-equipped operating rooms, radiological services, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, a cat scan and two oxygen producing plants, according to military experts.

Its heliport is capable of landing large military helicopters, while other patients can be transferred aboard from other ships through side ports.

The Comfort is leaving Baltimore with only about 300 medical and support personnel on board, which will not be enough to run the hospital at full capacity.

"She will be departing here with enough people to staff two" of the operating rooms, Holtz told AFP in a telephone interview.

If the need arises, more doctors and nurses will be flown in from the United States, the spokeswoman said.

The Comfort was deployed in New York Harbor in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States to provide medical and other services to rescue workers.

The deployment of the ship marks another step in a steady buildup of forces in the Gulf region that could be used in any U.S.-led military operation against Iraq, should President George W. Bush opt for one.

About 25,000 U.S. troops will be heading to the Gulf over the next few weeks, including the 1st Infantry Division, which already has an armored brigade in Kuwait, according to U.S. defense officials.

The Navy has also ordered the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which was heading home from the Gulf, to stay put and prepare for a possible return.

Two other carrier battle groups -- the USS George Washington and the USS Kitty Hawk -- have been ordered to be ready to deploy to the Gulf in 96 hours.

But as the Pentagon staged a public show of its muscle, The Boston Globe reported Sunday, January 5, that about 100 U.S. special forces and more than 50 Central Intelligence Agency officers had already been infiltrated inside Iraq at least four months ago.

Citing unnamed intelligence officials and military analysts, the paper said the teams were searching for Iraqi Scud missile launchers, monitoring oil fields, marking minefields and using laser pointers to guide U.S. pilots patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones toward their targets.

Spokesmen for the CIA and the U.S. military have refused to comment on the report.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported Monday that the U.S. military is assembling a ground force for a possible invasion of Iraq that could exceed 100,000 troops.

Quoting defense officials and analysts, the daily reported that a U.S. invasion force of about 100,000 soldiers would be roughly equivalent in size to Iraq's Republican Guard, with about 80,000 troops, and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's elite Special Republican Guard, with about 15,000 troops.

The U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf has accelerated as the January 27 deadline nears for the first major report by United Nations weapons inspectors to the UN Security Council.