Increased flights in southern Iraq

U.S. says Iraq can rebuild missiles even as they're destroyed

Colin Powell speaks on Wednesday at a Washington area think tank. Story Tools POWELL'S KEY POINTS • Iraq has not made the "strategic and political decision" needed to disarm • Iraqi steps toward disarmament are "too-little, too-late gestures" meant to split international resolve to see Baghdad give up its weapons of mass destruction. • U.S. intelligence indicates that Iraq has hidden equipment to produce Al Samoud 2 missiles even as it destroys existing ones under U.N. supervision. • The U.S. "has done everything possible to avoid war." • The international community must confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's refusal to disarm "here and now" in order to secure peace. • U.S. intelligence indicates Iraq is hiding chemical and biological weapons in poor neighborhoods in Baghdad. Iraq Tracker VIDEO CNN's Jamie McIntyre says Gen. Tommy Franks will report to President Bush his forces are ready for orders on Iraq (March 5) PLAY VIDEO The Iraqi government staged a massive show of force aimed at boosting morale with martyrs on parade from the Interior Ministry ranks (March 5) PLAY VIDEO SPECIAL REPORT •  War Tracker •  On the Scene Map •  Commanders: U.S. | Iraq •  Weapons: 3D Models •  Coalition casualties | POW/MIA •  Special Report WHAT'S NEXT Friday: Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix reports to the U.N. Security Council. The council is scheduled to discuss a new draft resolution on Iraq from the U.S., Britain and Spain. Iraq Tracker

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. and coalition warplanes have dramatically increased the number of missions they fly over southern Iraq, focusing on mobile missile systems being moved into the area, military officials told CNN Wednesday.

Officials said as many as 750 missions a day are now being flown by all types of aircraft, including fighters, refueling and reconnaissance aircraft. That number is about two to three times what had been the routine.

Military sources said the change is in response to the Iraqis moving mobile surface-to-surface missiles, mobile surface-to-air missiles, early warning radars and anti-ship missiles into the southern no-fly zone.

Those systems are being struck by coalition aircraft as soon as they are located through reconnaissance efforts, officials said, because of concerns the systems could be within range of U.S. troops in Kuwait.

Sources say the need to quickly attack Iraqi targets is the prime reason for the stepped-up activity.

The no-fly zones, designed to protect Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiites in the south from Saddam's regime, were established by the United States and Britain after the 1991 Gulf War. Iraqi officials insist the zones violate the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity and refuse to recognize them.

Diplomatic turns

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented a broader case for invading Iraq during a speech Wednesday to a Washington area think tank.

Powell added two additional details to the diplomatic debate over war against Iraq by announcing that U.S. intelligence indicates Iraq is hiding chemical and biological weapons in poor neighborhoods and that Iraq has hidden equipment to produce Al Samoud 2 missiles even as it destroys existing ones under United Nations supervision.

While U.N. weapons inspectors combed Iraq searching for weapons of mass destruction, Powell said Iraq moved chemical and biological weapons to areas near the Turkish and Syrian borders and parked old trucks loaded with banned weapons in poorer working class neighborhoods around Baghdad to avoid detection.

"If Baghdad really were cooperating, if they really wanted to comply, if it really was disarmament that they were interested in, they would be bringing all these materials out, not scattering them for protection," Powell said in his speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In his speech, Powell repeated the Bush administration's claim that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's recent steps toward disarmament are "too little, too late gestures" designed to confuse and divide the international community.

"Once again, he started to play the game that he has been playing for the last 11 or so years to divert our attention, to throw chafe up to confuse, to cause us to lose our way in applying our will," Powell said.

Powell will head to the United Nations Thursday to hold meetings with other diplomats before attending Friday's session of the Security Council, in which weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei are to give their latest reports on Iraq, a senior State Department official said.

Powell has been engaged in high-stakes diplomacy in recent days to secure at least nine out of 15 council votes necessary to pass a new resolution, proposed by the United States, Britain and Spain, that would declare Iraq is not in compliance with previous council resolutions. (Full story)

Earlier Wednesday in Paris, France, the foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany said their countries would not allow a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.

They also said in a joint statement, however, that U.N. inspections in Iraq cannot go on indefinitely.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told a news conference the three nations "will not allow a resolution to pass that authorizes resorting to force." De Villepin appeared with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. (Full story)

For latest developments, see CNN.com's Iraq Tracker.

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