ACCESSION 
NUMBER:363644

FILE ID:POL509

DATE:10/07/94

TITLE:U.S. SENDING "SIGNALS" TO WARD OFF IRAQI AGGRESSION (10/07/94)

TEXT:*94100709.POL

U.S. SENDING "SIGNALS" TO WARD OFF IRAQI AGGRESSION

(Defense official cites ship movements, troop alert) (220)

Washington -- A division of elite Republican Guard troops of the Iraqi army

has moved sufficiently "close" to the Kuwait border to cause the United

States some concern, says a senior Defense Department official.



Iraqi army divisions have been dispersed in the Basra area for years, but

now the additional Republican Guard unit has been moved close to the border

from its previous position farther north, which increases Iraqi strength

there by about 20 percent, the official told reporters.



1e declined to specify numbers of Iraqi divisions or their strengths.

"We are going to do our best to send some signals" to Baghdad, such as

moving naval units to the Persian Gulf and putting some U.S. troops on

alert, the official noted.



He said the aircraft carrier USS George Washington is moving with its

escorting vessels from the Adriatic Sea to the Persian Gulf.  Some 15,000

troops in the United States are going on alert for possible deployment to

the Middle East.  And supply vessels are moving to the Persian Gulf from

the naval base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.



The United States will bolster its intelligence and reconnaissance efforts

in and over Iraq, he said.



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