US war games in Kuwait keep pressure on Saddam

It is a chill, black night in the Kuwaiti desert. The only light comes from a few faint stars glimpsed through the clouds and bolts of lightning from a distant storm sweeping across the horizon.

But strap on night-vision goggles and everything changes. The desert becomes a shimmering green sea studded with scores of black shadows rolling across the sand - US tanks, artillery and armoured personnel carriers moving into position under cover of darkness for a mock attack on enemy positions.

Across a large swathe of the Kuwaiti desert just a few kilomitres from the Iraqi border, the US military is preparing for war. More than 12,000 troops are in Kuwait for training exercises that have taken on an added urgency as soldiers ponder the possibility that soon they could be doing it for real.

On a five-day live-fire exercise this month involving soldiers from the US 3rd Infantry Division, the talk among the troops was of the prospect of war with Iraq.

"We always emphasise to train as we fight," said First Lieutenant Chet Cofer, a combat engineer whose team cleared a path through a minefield as part of the exercise. "But now that soldiers are watching the news and seeing what is happening, they are taking it even more seriously, and with good reason."

The high-profile exercises are keeping up the pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The United States is showing off its military muscle as it demands that Saddam give up Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or face war.

Iraq insists it has no chemical, biological or nuclear arms, and submitted a 12,000-page weapons declaration earlier this month. Washington says the dossier falls short of full disclosure. United Nations weapons inspectors are in Iraq to test the country's compliance with international demands.

Besides the manoeuvres in the Kuwaiti desert - part of the long-running Operation Desert Spring training mission - the US also launched the Internal Look exercise in Qatar this month, a test run of the control network that links Central Command's mobile headquarters to combat units in the field.

Internal Look was strictly behind closed doors, but the exercises in the Kuwaiti desert have been a very public display of what Saddam could expect if the United States goes to war.

Colonel David Perkins, commander of the 2nd Brigade in Kuwait, says weeks of training in desert conditions mean his troops are ready for whatever is thrown at them.

And while the amount of troops and equipment assembled in Kuwait is still well short of what analysts say would be needed for an invasion, the US military is building up its capacity in the country at a steady pace.

Kuwait is a key ally of Washington in the region and seen as a major launching pad for any attack on Iraq.

The country has boosted security measures after Saddam hailed Kuwaitis who attacked US forces and described the US military presence in Kuwait as an occupation. But security remains a concern for troops taking part in the exercises.

A Kuwaiti policeman shot and seriously wounded two US soldiers in November after stopping them on a highway south of Kuwait city, and the previous month two Kuwaitis attacked US Marines training on a Kuwaiti island, killing one.

There have also been several reports of shots fired at US troops training in the desert.

The exercises include regular live-fire exercises as well as force-on-force drills, where two groups fight a simulated battle against each other.

By day, columns of US armour clatter across the desert throwing up billowing clouds of sand and dust. The air shudders to the sound of artillery explosions and gunfire.

At night, when the mock attacks begin, tracer bullets and flares light up the sky. Two huge pillars of fire bloom out of the darkness as combat engineers use high explosives launched by rocket to clear a path through a minefield.

The mock battles include a test of the military's medical capabilities. Some vehicles are designated as having been hit by enemy fire and the "wounded" have to be evacuated and treated.

One team of medics set up a forward aid station in the middle of a sandstorm. Wearing goggles to keep the dust out of their eyes, they constructed makeshift litters for the injured to lie on, practised emergency medical aid and called in helicopters to evacuate those deemed the most critically hurt.

"We're doing everything just as we would do it for real, except for actually cutting into people," said Captain Erik Schobitz, an army physician directing the medical drill.

"But we did hook some people up to IVs (intravenous drips)." Schobitz says the drill went well and his team are ready. "Lord willing, there will be a political solution," he said.

"But in the event of war, we are ready."