US military moving command staff to Gulf

11.45am

WASHINGTON - The United States military will soon move elements of its key Central Command headquarters from Florida to the Gulf state of Qatar, southeast of Iraq, for a three-week exercise, and might make the move more permanent, say defence officials.

The decision by Army General Tommy Franks, head of the command and responsible for military operations in the region, comes amid growing speculation that the United States might invade Iraq to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

The defence officials, who asked not to be named, today said some senior officers from Central Command in Tampa would go to Qatar, probably to Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, for command post exercise "Internal Look", which has been held biennially in the Gulf region since 1990.

The communications exercise, which will test the mobility of a newly constituted "deployable headquarters" from Central Command, is expected to begin next month.

This would be the first time that headquarters elements from Central Command moved to Qatar. The small Gulf state, located about 485km southeast of Iraq, is a close friend of the United States, and it recently expanded and improved Al Udeid, where US forces and warplanes are supporting American military operations in Afghanistan.

"Whether this (command shift) would become something more permanent is something that is under consideration," one senior defence official told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia, a neighbour of Qatar, has said that it would not allow major US air power at its big Prince Sultan Air Base to be used in any Iraq invasion. The United States, working with Qatar, has in recent months sharply increased its military presence -- including communications and intelligence links -- at Al Udeid as a backup to Sultan.

The command move emerged as US military forces in the Gulf and Middle East on Wednesday were upgraded to their highest alert status in response to warnings of possible terror attacks on the anniversary of strikes against America, defence officials said.

From Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Franks ordered the "Threat Condition Delta" protective alert for troops and their families throughout the Gulf, Middle East, Horn of Africa and parts of Central Asia, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified.

Forces in Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based in the Gulf with some 4000 troops, had been put on "Threat Condition Delta" on Tuesday, and other bases in the Central Command region were at that time placed on slightly lower "Threatcon Charlie".

But in a precautionary move, that status on Wednesday was upgraded to Delta throughout the region of the Central Command, which also is responsible for US military operations in the Horn of Africa and much of Central Asia, including Kazakhstan.

The defence officials declined to elaborate on the exact nature of the threats.

US Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top officials said on Tuesday that information from debriefings with a senior al Qaeda operative and from US intelligence agencies pointed to possible attacks on American facilities in southeast Asia or possible suicide attacks on US interests by individuals in the Middle East.

Several embassies and consulates in south and southeast Asia were closed on Tuesday and remained shut on Wednesday. Some embassies in Africa, where two US embassies were bombed in 1998, also were closed.

- REUTERS

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