These artillery pieces, the Pentagon said, could have “obstructed” US-led forces in their advance on Baghdad.
“This is part of the final preparatory move before the invasion begins,” a Pentagon official told reporters.
Pentagon officials said US-led forces would roll back or destroy any Iraqi military presence in the southern no fly zone, a 500-km stretch of desert which goes straight to Baghdad.
US and British soldiers are likely to use this route on their way to Baghdad after the invasion begins. The area was declared a no fly zone in 1991, preventing Iraqi aircraft from flying over it.
“We want to make this stretch of land completely safe for (invading) U.S. and British forces,” a Pentagon official said.
BUSH SAYS DIPLOMACY DEAD: US-led forces crept closer to the border with Iraq on Wednesday as the clock ticked down to an ultimatum for President Saddam Hussein to go into exile or face an invasion, adds AFP.
Rejecting last minute warnings against military conflict, President George Bush formally declared diplomacy dead and notified the Congress that an attack could come any time. The White House warned Americans to be prepared for a long war and loss of life.
Shrugging off a severe sandstorm, several hundred US army vehicles assembled near the Kuwait-Iraq frontier, a day after about 1,000 US marine tanks, armoured personnel carriers and trucks were seen on the move.
“All elements of the US armed forces are currently repositioning close to the Iraq border,” said the commander of an infantry division.
US officials dismissed reports they had already taken over the demilitarized zone set up on the frontier after the 1991 attack.
Some 280,000 US and British troops, including 174,000 in Kuwait, are readying an invasion after President Saddam rejected ultimatums to go into exile.
US officials have warned of a blistering “shock and awe” strike aimed at stunning Iraq’s army into a quick and clean surrender.
They said the 48 hours of an air attack expected to begin soon after the Thursday deadline of 0115 GMT (6.15am PST) could see some 3,000 precision bombs rain down on leadership command posts, Republican Guards, communications networks and air defences.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz reiterated Baghdad’s rejection of Bush’s ultimatum that President Saddam flee.
“Bush said he was asking the great leader Saddam Hussein to leave his country — this, obviously, is impossible,” Mr Aziz said at a news conference during which he also denied rumours he had defected.
He poured scorn on Bush’s demands that Iraqi troops lay down their arms and surrender, saying the US president “wants to occupy Iraq for free, without a single shot being fired. This is an illusion”.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appeared resigned to war, calling it a “sad day” for the world and reminding the United States of its responsibility to care for the inevitable civilian refugees.
“Under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the belligerents,” Annan said, adding: “I know that millions of people around the world share this sense of disappointment and are deeply alarmed by the prospect of imminent war.”
Baghdad was virtually a ghost town as residents who could, fled the capital, but there was little sign of Iraqi military preparations for a conflict likely to change the face of the Middle East.
After President Bush formally told Congress war was now the only recourse, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration hoped for a short conflict but warned of “many unknowns”.
“Clearly, one of the major concerns we have is that we are up against an enemy who may use chemical or biological weapons,” he said. “Americans have to be prepared for loss of life.”
But Iraqi officials said Bush was sending his troops to certain death as legislators meeting at an emergency session pledged to shed their blood to defend the man who has led them since 1979.
“History will recall how the people of Iraq, under the glorious leadership of Saddam Hussein, inflicted a lesson on the worthless,” the assembly said in a unanimous declaration rejecting the US ultimatum.
HUMANITARIAN DISASTER: The UN Security Council, with diplomacy and negotiations cast away, turned its attention to Annan’s fears of a humanitarian catastrophe, with officials working on plans to cope with a flight of as many as 600,000 Iraqi refugees.
Already, tens of thousands of people have been pouring into northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region from government-controlled areas and neighbouring Turkey and Jordan are bracing for waves of refugees.
“Our task now is to do everything we possibly can to avert a humanitarian disaster,” German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a staunch opponent of war, told the meeting, boycotted by his British and US counterparts.
UN inspectors pulled out of Iraq on Tuesday, along with diplomats and foreign nationals who have been told to leave Iraq and neighbouring countries.
Public opposition to a conflict remains strong and a clarion call has gone out from anti-war organizations across the world for protests once war begins.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a staunch US ally facing heavy political and popular opposition at home, told parliament that ousting Saddam’s regime was the chief goal of war.
Senior Iraqi officials “will be held accountable for what they have done”, Blair said, implicitly suggesting Saddam himself could be tried for war crimes.
Americans and Britons have been warned to brace for possible terrorist strikes that could dwarf the Sept 11, 2001, attacks and governments across Europe and Asia have also beefed up security. —AFP
