News, August 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
US forces scale back at Saudi air base
Jordan Times
Friday-Saturday, August 29-30, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has withdrawn most of its forces from the strategic Mideast kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ending a decade-long buildup started after the first war against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. With Saddam ousted from office in neighbouring Iraq nearly five months ago, US military officials transferred back to the Saudis control of portions of Prince Sultan Air Base and deactivated the 363rd Air Expeditionary Wing that has operated there, the air force said in a statement Wednesday.
“The end of (major combat operations in Iraq) and Saddam Hussein's government means the American military mission here is over,” Maj. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., a commander there, was quoted as saying at Tuesday's withdrawal ceremony.
Saudi government officials asked US service members to deploy to Saudi Arabia for the 1991 Gulf War. But US presence was opposed by some in the kingdom — the site of Islam's holiest sites — and was among reasons cited by Saudi-born Osama Ben Laden for his Al Qaeda attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001.
Until the Iraq war began in March, American forces used the Prince Sultan base to enforce a “no-fly zone” over southern Iraq that was designed to deny Saddam's forces flight rights in the region.
Then, at the height of the second Iraq war, US military personnel at Prince Sultan Air Base numbered more than 5,000, with about 200 warplanes flying missions from the facility, according to the air force.
A crew of a few hundred troops is to remain, and US military personnel will continue training with Saudi forces and holding joint exercises, officials said.
The base became the centre of the US presence in the country in 1997 after the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers barracks near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 US airmen and injured 400 others.
The defence department has invested large sums in a state-of-the-art air command center south of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. It was completed just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and was used to coordinate the air campaign against the Taleban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The US-Saudi agreement on US withdrawal was made April 29 — a day before President George W. Bush declared major combat over in Iraq. Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at that time that the work done at Prince Sultan Air Base was being shifted to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |