Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

21 March 2003

IRAQ

• Twelve British and four U.S. soldiers were killed when a U.S. Marine helicopter crashed in Kuwait, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday, in the first confirmed fatalities among the forces attacking Iraq. “We are confirming 12 British and four Americans dead,” U.S. Marine Corps Major David Andersen said in Kuwait. “The crash is still under investigation but preliminary reports suggest that it was not as a result of hostile fire.” The CH-46E helicopter crashed about 10 miles (16 km) south of the border with Iraq at about 0040 GMT on Friday.(Reuters 0448 210303 GMT)
  
  
• Turkey has granted the U.S. military permission to use its airspace, a measure that would make it easier for U.S. heavy bombers based in Europe to strike Iraq and U.S. transport and supply aircraft to move troops and war material to the region. The 332-202 vote Thursday also allows Turkish troops to enter northern Iraq, a move that U.S. officials have been trying to discourage, fearing that any unilateral entry could lead to friendly fire incidents or clashes with Iraqi Kurds. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher welcomed the vote granting airspace rights, but said the United States remained “opposed to unilateral action by Turkey or by any party in northern Iraq.” The resolution passed in parliament would allow U.S. warplanes or transport aircraft to fly across Turkey. The measure, however, will not allow U.S. warplanes to use Turkish air bases or refuel in Turkey. The United States, for example, will not be able to use the 50 warplanes it has at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey. Those aircraft were used to patrol a no-fly zone over Iraq. “May it be good for our country and our people,” Prime Minister Erdogan said after the vote. “The results are what we expected.” But when asked when airspace would be opened, Erdogan said: “We will inform you about this later.” U.S. flights can only start after details of the overflights are worked out. An agreement has not been reached by late Thursday, an official said.(AP 210020 Mar 03 GMT)
  
  
• Prime Minister Blair told Britain on Thursday that its forces had joined a U.S.-led air, land and sea attack on Iraq as the war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein moved up a gear. Blair was in Brussels confronting some of his staunchest European critics when television networks aired his address to a nation deeply divided over the war.” Tonight, British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea,” a stony-faced Blair said in the somber address recorded in his Downing Street home before he left for an EU summit in Brussels. “Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.” In Brussels, Blair had dinner with EU leaders, including French President Chirac and German Chancellor Schroeder. In a statement that focused on what still united them, EU leaders pledged to address humanitarian needs in Iraq and work for peace. They said the UN must remain integral to the crisis and that the transatlantic relationship was fundamental to the EU. Diplomats said there were no plans for Blair and Chirac to meet privately.(Reuters 2330 200303 GMT)
  
  
• The United States vowed on Thursday to wage a war of unparalleled power to topple or kill President Saddam Hussein and urged his Iraqi defenders to lay down their arms and surrender. But with U.S. troops pouring over the Kuwaiti border into Iraq after a day of air raids on Baghdad, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld held out hopes that a full-scale war could still be avoided. “The pressure is continuing on the Iraqi regime and it will not be there in the period ahead. And we still hope that it is possible that they will not be there without the full force and fury of a war,” Rumsfeld told reporters after a closed-door congressional briefing. Meanwhile, senior U.S. defense officials told Reuters that the ground phase of the U.S. assault on Iraq had been pushed forward to precede a much-anticipated massive aerial bombardment known to Pentagon officials as “shock and awe.” “The ground phase began earlier than planned,” one official said.(Reuters 0257 210303 GMT)
  
  
• EU leaders were set to warn Iraq’s neighbors on Thursday not to endanger stability in the region after Turkey’s parliament voted to allow Turkish troops to enter northern Iraq. A draft statement on the Iraq war being discussed at an EU summit, obtained by Reuters, said: “We call on all countries of the region to refrain from actions that could lead to further instability.” An EU diplomat said the message was clearly aimed at EU candidate Turkey, which refused to allow U.S. troops to invade Iraq from its soil but has cleared the way for thousands of its own troops to move in, raising the risk of clashes with Kurds in the autonomous north of Iraq. The draft, which diplomats said could still be amended, said the EU “regrets that the opportunity offered to Iraq by UN Security Council resolution 1441 was not taken and that a peaceful resolution of the Iraqi crisis was not achieved”.(Reuters 2037 200303 GMT)