When the Downing St Minutes were first published in beginning of May, one of the oft quoted lines was: “The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun “spikes of activity” to put pressure on the regime”. “Spikes of activity”, such an interesting term, it leaves much to the imagination. You can almost here it coming out of John Reid’s mouth as if he were a character in a James Bond movie, a term so innocuous yet at the same time very menacing.
If we look at exactly what the US was doing during the period to put pressure on the regime, the incongruity of the phrase becomes apparent. The buildup of men and materials in the region was unprecedented. The US had stepped up its air attacks in June with the start of Operation Southern Focus in an attempt to soften Saddam’s defenses prior to invasion and there was an increase in the training and equipping of the Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq.
Just weeks after Tony Blair and his cabinet met to discuss how they would balance the increasing pressure from Washington to go to war with the actual political realities of doing so, one of the largest “spikes of activity” to date would begin. On August 8,2002, a joint US, British and Turkish strike force would cross the border into Iraq and engage the enemy for the first time in the opening salvo of what would become Operation Iraqi Freedom.
US-UK-TURK JOINT OPERATION PUT “BOOTS ON THE GROUND” IN IRAQ AUG. 8, 2002
After months of preparation that had begun in March of 2002 with the insertion of US special forces into the Kurdish regions in northern Iraq, and continued in April with the arrival of Turkish special forces troops entering the Turkman regions around the big oil towns of Mosul and Kirkuk, the stage was set for what would be the opening salvo in the war in Iraq.
The attack began on August 6, at 8:00 AM, when US and British bombers destroyed the Iraqi air command and control center at al-Nukhaib located about 260 miles southwest of Baghdad. The center had recently installed a new advanced fiber optic network.
To test the effectiveness of the raid, US warplanes from the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia and from US aircraft carriers in the Gulf were then dispatched to fly over the Iraqi capital. “This deep air penetration told the Americans that the early warning radar system protecting Baghdad and its environs from intrusion by enemy aircraft and missiles was inactive”
On Wednesday August 8, at 5:00 PM local time the combined air and ground assault was ready to begin.
The American unit, reinforced, went on to capture two small Iraqi military airfields nearby.
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…military experts explain that with Bamerni airport and the two additional airfields the Americans have acquired full control of the skies over the two oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as over the Syrian-Iraqi railroad, which they can now cut off by aerial bombardment.
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The battle over this airfield was in fact the first important face-to-face engagement between a US-led invasion force and Iraqi troops.
Hurriyet reported that Turkey has also sent civil and military personnel to the airport for maintenance and technical support. Several logistics-electronic machinery has also been sent to further improve the condition of the airport.
From KurdishMedia.com
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But in part the actions go well beyond that. In Kurdish Iraq – according to Israeli sources – US army engineers are working around the clock to build a series of six to eight airstrips to serve fighter planes and helicopters that will provide air cover for invading ground forces.
Soon after Ankara’s official denial that Turkey had deployed troops at the airport, we received information about struggles in the region.
From Milliyet (Turkey) via Turkish Press Review
On August 9,2002 future Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, then head of the Patriot Union of Kurdistan (PUK), spoke with CNN-TURK. He confirmed that the airport was in fact under Turkish control but with an odd twist.
By August 20, 2002 the news finally made it into the British press. The Sunday Express reported:
The military invasion involved 5,000 Turkish Commandos backed by American Special Forces. Eye-witnesses on the ground claimed air support and/or protection in the northern no-fly zone was provided by Turkish, American and British aircraft. Claims of a British air involvement in this particular action drew a strong denial by the MoD.
After a brief skirmish with ill-equipped Iraqi troops from an armoured section of Saddam’s war machine, Bamarni airbase fell into the control of Allied troops and several C130 transporter planes were guided on to the airstrips from bases in Turkey.
Heavy earth-moving machinery and electronic support equipment were unloaded over several days and as rumours of an invasion began to circulate, Turkish television issued strong denials and broadcast old pictures of the air base showing it abandoned and derelict. As Turkish troops reinforced security around the airport which lies just outside of the Kurdish district, American Special Forces and a crack unit of Turkish commandos seized two other strategic military points on either side of the airbase in the Dahuk province of Iraq.
The two bases which incorporated very basic army barracks were on two hills, one 565 ft above sea level and the other 2160 ft and now provide US and Turkish soldiers with strategic look out posts over the immediate area. Americans are now confident they have air superiority over the entire region which includes the two famous industrial cities of Al Mawsil and Kirkuk.
This also includes the strategic railroad linking Syria and Iraq which has long been suspected as a key smuggling route for receiving arms and sending out illegal oil exports.
The invasion, which resulted in the first hand-to-hand combat between coalition and Iraqi troops, took place as Saddam Hussein warned America against invading his country.
From The Sunday Express 8/20/2002 via Global Intel.net
Summary at The Edge.Org
Although this story of a “spike in activity” was covered in the world press it received little attention from the US media. Clearly the evidence is incontrovertible that although it would be more than two months before Congress authorized the use of force in Iraq, and seven months before “all the diplomatic options were exhausted”, the military had already gone forward with the Administration’s plans for war.
This is the second in a series of articles dealing with the US military’s activities prior to the official start of hostilities in Iraq in March of 2003. It is the result of research done by the IRAQFACT working group.
To contact IRAQFACT: iraqfact@Yahoo.com