International

Allies seek to capture southern oil fields

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (Bahrain) March 21. Surprised by the Iraqi retaliation with missiles on Thursday but keen not to lose the military initiative, U.S. and Britain have taken the risk of launching their ground offensive ahead of schedule. On the second day of the war, the U.S. and British forces were addressing their first strategic objective of establishing control over the Southern Iraqi oil fields. The takeover of the Faw Peninsula on the southern tip on the Iraqi coastline and the British pursuit for the capture of the port of Umm Qasr have been steps in this direction. The seizure of Umm Qasr can open another supply line for the advancing forces as well as become the inlet for the passage of humanitarian supplies into Iraq in the future. By controlling the Faw Peninsula, the invading force is in a position to grasp the oil pipeline network and the pumping stations there. The costly damage to this oil complex has been avoided. British and U.S. forces may now have Basra in their sights. But the Anglo-American forces may like to gauge the public mood in Basra and gather intelligence on the state of the Iraqi military preparedness before making a lunge for this oil city. Holding Basra, however, has its advantages, as the city is the junction from where roads heading towards Baghdad and the Iraqi northern oil city of Kirkuk radiate. In other words, from Basra another attack echelon can be launched towards Baghdad, while U.S. Special Forces operating in northern Iraq can also be supplemented with additional forces. The second core objective of the Anglo-American campaign has been to establish control over the "Scud box"— the desert zone in western Iraq from where Scud missiles against Israel had been launched during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991.

U.S. forces are already in control of taking over the H-3 air base complex, which has been used in the past to launch Scuds against Israel. The cluster of buildings in this zone was also suspected of holding stocks of Iraqi chemical weapons and missiles.

The biggest obstacles which the U.S. forces are now poised to face are in northern Iraq. With Turkey denying permission to transit its forces, the U.S. cannot pump in the heavy armour into northern Iraq. That means the option of opening a second front, which would have been responsible for seizing the northern oil fields and supplementing an eventual multi-directional attack on Baghdad is petering out. U.S. Special Forces might have covered ground to seize the Kirkuk oil fields, but reinforcements should be required to prolong their hold over this area.

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