AP: List of U.S. Troops Deployed in Southwest Asia on 10/3/2002

Macon (Georgia) Telegraph

KUWAIT

About 9,000 U.S. military permanently stationed in the country liberated from Iraqi invasion in 1991. Two Army and one Air Force base built or upgraded by the United States. At least two Patriot anti-missile batteries.

An armored brigade of the Army’s 3rd Infantry from Fort Stewart, Ga., is arriving for exercises in Kuwait, replacing a similar brigade from Fort Benning, Ga. Each brigade has about 3,000 combat troops.

The U.S. military has pre-positioned enough equipment for two heavy armored brigades in Kuwait, which include about 115 M-1A1 Abrams tanks, 60 M-2A2 Bradley fighting vehicles and other equipment, ammunition and fuel.

BAHRAIN

This island nation in the Persian Gulf is headquarters for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. About 4,200 military personnel are stationed there. Bahrain also has pre-positioned equipment stocks and an air base.

QATAR

About 3,300 U.S. soldiers are stationed here. The U.S. has recently upgraded the al-Udeid air base with the region’s longest runway and other high-tech features. About 600 top officials from the U.S. Central Command plan to come here in al-Udeid in November, and the Pentagon says the base probably will become a forward command center.

The U.S. also has pre-positioned equipment for at least one heavy armored brigade here.

SAUDI ARABIA

About 6,000 U.S. troops are stationed here. While Saudi Arabia has expressed opposition to a U.S. invasion of Iraq, that opposition has softened in recent weeks.

Besides pre-positioned equipment, Saudi Arabia is home to a command center at the Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh, where U.S. commanders ran the Persian Gulf War.

OMAN

About 2,400 U.S. troops are here, mostly Air Force personnel at bases in this Gulf nation.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

About 500 U.S. forces, mostly Air Force personnel.

TURKEY

About 1,700 U.S. military forces are stationed in Turkey, mostly at the air base in Incirlik, where planes patrolling Iraq’s northern no-fly zone are based.

DJIBOUTI

This small nation on Africa’s Red Sea coast has been home to about 800 U.S. special operations troops since April.

AT SEA

The USS Abraham Lincoln and its battle group are in the northern Arabian Sea and are expected to patrol in the Persian Gulf. The Lincoln is carrying the first overseas deployment of the new F/A-18 Super Hornet, which has longer range and better weapons than older F/A-18 warplanes.

The USS George Washington, which will remain in striking range of Iraq as it returns to its base in Virginia, also is available. Its replacement, the USS Harry Truman, is due in the area in late November.

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