US preparing to attack Iraq in January
About 60,000 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, as well as about 200 warplanes, were in or near the region.
The Army alone has 9,000 soldiers, 24 Apache helicopter gunships and heavy equipment for two armoured brigades in Kuwait, the New York Times reported.
Taken together, these are unmistakable signs that before long, President Bush would be in a position to order an attack, within days, on Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein, senior military officials were quoted as saying.
"This is really their last chance to decide to either have a peaceful resolution, which requires giving up those weapons, or have us to do it by force," Deputy Defence Secretary Paul D Wolfowitz said this week in Turkey.
Nearly 1,000 military planners, led by Gen Tommy Franks, had assembled in Qatar and other gulf states for a computer- simulated exercise that begins Monday and was intended as a model for an offensive against Iraq, officials said.
Equipment for a third brigade was steadily arriving on ships usually based in the Indian Ocean, and some material would be stored at Camp Arifjan – a new logistics base south of Kuwait City, the Times said.
