Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

28 March 2003

IRAQ

• U.S. troops using tanks and artillery battled an Iraqi force of about 1,500 men overnight near the town of Najaf in central Iraq, military sources said on Friday. The sources had no information on possible casualties in the clash between the Iraqis and U.S. brigades, which are part of a pincer movement planning to head north along the west bank of the Euphrates River towards Baghdad. Reuters reporter Luke Baker said it was not immediately clear whether the Iraqis were regular troops or part of the elite Republican Guard. “There was a lot of bangs and whistles, but everything seems to have been taken care of,” Captain Alex Deraney of the 535th Engineers’ Company told Reuters. “The battle raged for a few hours. It finished about 3 a.m.” (midnight GMT), Baker said. Najaf is about 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.(AP 0428 280303 GMT)
  
  
• Turkey’s government “didn't quite know what it was doing,” in failing to win parliamentary approval to allow U.S. troops the right to use its territory to invade Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz told a House panel Thursday. Wolfowitz described Turkey’s decision as a “big, big mistake” but also acknowledged the United States had asked a lot of Turkey and noted that Turkey has granted overflight rights to American planes. Appearing before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Wolfowitz defended President Bush's request for $1 billion in aid to Turkey, part of a $74.7 billion war spending bill. Rep. Todd Tiahrt asked Wolfowitz how much Turkey’s decision cost the United States. Wolfowitz said the monetary cost is “not trivial,” but the real cost is in not having a heavy combat division in northern Iraq. “There’s no question if we had a U.S. armored force in northern Iraq right now, the end (of the war) would be closer,” he said. He said Turkey would have benefited from the $6 billion aid package that the United States was offering. “And that's clearly gone,” he said. But he said Turkey has “stepped up” by permitting overflight rights to the United States. “Overflight of Turkey is a very big thing and they gave it to us unconditionally,” he said. He said the $1 billion is needed to help Turkey deal with economic losses caused by the war, such as damage to its tourism business. In the long run, he said, the war will benefit Turkey because it will open new trade opportunities with an Iraq that is free of international sanctions.(AP 272212 Mar 03 GMT)
  
  
• The Slovene government on Thursday granted flyover rights to U.S. planes carrying personnel and equipment in humanitarian missions to northern Iraq. Prime Minister Anton Rop stressed, however, that Thursday's decision does not make his country part of the so-called “coalition of the willing” backing the U.S.-led war. He also denied a U.S. State Department report saying Slovenia would receive aid money allotted to U.S. allies in the war. Slovenia was to reportedly receive US$4.5 million. “Slovenia will not get the money ... because it is not a member of the anti-Iraq coalition,” Rop said.(AP 271418 Mar 03 GMT)

BALKANS

• Police shot and killed two major suspects in the assassination of Prime Minister Djindjic as they resisted arrest late Thursday, the government said. Dusan Spasojevic and Milan Lukovic were leaders of the Zemun Clan, a crime gang that has been accused of masterminding the March 12 assassination of Djindjic, a terse government statement said, adding that the two “resisted arrest and opened fire on police officers ... they were killed in an ensuing shooting.” The statement did not elaborate on specific role the two allegedly played in the assassination, but a ranking police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "Spasojevic and Lukovic were directly involved in the plot to kill Djindjic, they organized it, they financed it.”(AP 272357 Mar 03 GMT)

OTHER NEWS

• A Czech chemical weapons unit found no traces of a biological or chemical warhead on a missile that landed near Kuwait City on Thursday, Czech military authorities said. “The troops found no evidence that the missile which landed near Kuwait City carried either a biological or chemical weapon,” a spokeswoman for the Czech joint chiefs of staff told Reuters. The Czech chemical weapons detection unit was called into action on Thursday morning after an Iraqi missile came down at an oil plant. The CTK news agency quoted Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik as confirming the tests were negative. “I am happy to say that our system works and that we were not participating in the re-writing of modern history,” he added. Some 400 Czech troops have been stationed in Kuwait for several months at the request of NATO ally the United States.(Reuters 1456 270303 GMT)