Marine unit heads to Gulf; 3rd U.S. carrier arrives

USS Independence

February 5, 1998
Web posted at: 3:39 p.m. EST (2039 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A third U.S. Navy aircraft carrier arrived in the Persian Gulf Thursday as 2,000 Marines on Navy ships, with infantry and combat aircraft aboard, headed toward the gulf from the Mediterranean Sea.

Pentagon officials said more U.S. warplanes also might be sent soon to the tense region in the standoff with Iraq over U.N. arms inspections.

The extra firepower was designed to give President Clinton more flexibility, as he contemplates using military force to compel Iraq to give U.N. inspectors full access to all sites where weapons of mass destruction might be stored.

As expected, the USS Independence, the oldest ship in the Navy, arrived in the gulf with its 50 strike aircraft plus support planes to join the USS Nimitz and USS George Washington. The Independence left its home base in Japan last month.

Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, chief of the U.S. Central Command and commander of all American forces in the Middle East, requested the additional forces while the administration continued to pursue a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Zinni asked for a Marine Expeditionary Unit, a specially tailored group of about 2,000 Marines aboard Navy ships equipped with about two dozen attack and support helicopters, plus amphibious assault vehicles. They include an infantry battalion armed with artillery and other weapons.

USS Nimitiz

A senior defense official said Thursday that Marines aboard a four-ship fleet led by the amphibious assault ship USS Guam had started toward the Gulf. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit has been operating in the Mediterranean, practicing an amphibious landing on the Spanish coast.

The Marine Expeditionary Unit was to move through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and then to the gulf in about 10 days.

There are 24,400 U.S. military men and women already in the gulf region, most at sea with two aircraft combat carrier battle groups that include 14 combat ships, 11 support vessels and 325 warplanes.

Other defense officials said Zinni also had asked for an additional six radar-avoiding F-117A stealth fighters to join six of the planes already stationed in Kuwait and another six B-52 bombers to join eight stationed on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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