Secret conference for US military leadership in Kuwait; transfer of Florida leadership to Qatar
Kuwait-USA, Politics, 9/20/2002

A conference started in Kuwait yesterday and will last for two days including senior US leaders of operations under the leadership of the commander of the US central leadership, which covers a large area including the Gulf region and Afghanistan, US Gen. Tommy Francs.

Francs arrived in Kuwait from Doha following two days of talks with the Qatari officials centered on plans to gain a permanent American military presence in Qatar.

The Kuwait meeting includes the leaders of different weapons in the Central Leadership including the naval, air and special operation forces.

The US forces use "Doha camp" base, which was a former warehouse on the outskirts of the city of Kuwait, as a main base for the American land forces and to stock piling weapons as well as a field for training near the borders with Iraq.

Since several weeks, the US has been sending heavy equipment and ammunition to Kuwait, but the Kuwaiti and American authorities say that this falls in the course of the training program which currently includes units for chemical warfare from Germany and the Czech Republic.

American defense sources said that the number of American forces including the land forces in Kuwait has not increased during the recent tensions with Iraq and the number is still between 8000 to 10,000. In the Qatari capital, Doha, officials say that between 600 to 1000 more troops of the American armed forces will be transported to an American military base in Qatar in coincidence with the talk on the possibility of launching an American attack against Iraq from that country, though the US defense secretary Donald Ramsfeld recently stressed that the American Central Leadership in Florida which is responsible for operations in Asia and the Middle East will be transferred to Qatar for logistic reasons.

The spokesman for the Central Leadership said "in this phase, we are talking about between 600 to 1000 members belonging to a force of 2500 men that are in the context of an operation 'freedom alliance' which will be permanently located in Qatar." He explained that the exercises will be carried out during the first week of October, and the transport of equipment and soldiers will be in the next two weeks so as the transportation process of the base will be completed. He added that the re-deployment of forces comes in the context of an operation planned for by the defense department since a long time to transfer the leadership of the Afghan war leadership from Florida to al-Aided base in Qatar.

Previous Stories:
  Ruler of Qatar confers with US forces commander   (9/19/2002)
  Fox news: US military central leadership starts moving to Qatar   (9/12/2002)
  Two US planes break the sound barrier over Kuwait   (9/9/2002)
  45,000 American troops to be transported to Kuwait, Jordan next week   (9/7/2002)
  Al-Qabas: Sheikh Khaled visited Washington   (8/26/2002)
  New runways in al-Adeed Qatari base in preparations to attack Iraq   (8/10/2002)

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