THE US has drafted a plan to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi opposition leader told the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera yesterday.
Washington was tracking Mr Hussein's movements through satellite data and intelligence sources and planned to order air strikes "to try to kill him" when they were sure "they have determined with accuracy the spot where he can be found", former Iraqi intelligence chief Wafiq Sammarai said.
US warplanes could take off from the southern Turkey military base of Incirlik and bases in the Gulf or by the Mediterranean or Red seas, said Mr Sammarai, who defected from Iraq in 1994 and joined the London-based Iraqi National Congress opposition group.
Mr Sammarai called the plan "serious", but stressed he did not think this operation was going to come soon.
"If they fail (in killing Saddam), they could conduct raids against several targets," said Mr Sammarai, who indicated he was in contact with the Kurdish opposition enclave in northern Iraq.
He denied there were US troops in Kurdish Iraq, which is protected from Mr Hussein by a US-imposed no-fly zone.
Mr Sammarai also dismissed a report in the Lebanese As-Safir newspaper that 2000 US troops had been stationed in Jordan ready to oust the Iraqi leader. Jordan has denied the story.
"I can affirm that there are no American troops in Jordan," Mr Sammarai said.
In a front-page story with a London dateline, the newspaper said forward bases for US troops had been set up in Jordan in preparation for an invasion of Iraq.
"Jordanian King Abdullah has given orders to clear two military airports in Jordan for the US forces. About 2000 US troops have been deployed in Jordan so far," the paper said.
It quoted "well-informed diplomatic sources" as saying Washington "has launched a security and military operation in Iraq".
"Dozens of the US soldiers, along with CIA agents, have been sent into Iraqi territory," it said.
CIA chief George Tenet "personally visited northern Iraq during his last tour of the region and gave orders to start the security plan after US President George W. Bush approved a decision to ask the CIA to overthrow . . . Saddam", the sources said.
The Lebanese daily, which maintains close relations with the Syrian leadership, said the US had started a "flurry of contacts with various forces among the Iraqi opposition, but there are great difficulties in forming a coalition similar to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan".
"Intensive contacts are being held with both the Kurdish and Shi'ite opposition in order to establish springboards for potential operations," the diplomatic sources said.
They added that Washington had first approached Saudi Arabia, but it had "refused to let its territory be used for any military attack against Iraq".
Mr Bush's order to topple Mr Hussein reportedly directs the CIA to use all available means, including increased support to opposition groups inside and outside Iraq.
Mr Bush also allowed for the possible use of CIA and US Special Forces teams in the operation, with such forces being authorised to kill the Iraqi President if they were acting in self-defence, the Washington Post reported on June 16.
