USS Kitty Hawk: Iraq fires on U.S. planes

U.S. pilots enforcing the no-flight zone over southern Iraq have been fired on from the ground in the past few days, returning pilots said Friday.

As the number of air patrols launched from three U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf grows, pilots say, Iraqi ground defenses are responding with greater aggression.

The explosions occurred too far away to be a real danger to the warplanes, and in the fading light the pilots couldn’t see where the attack came from, Cmdr. Jay Bynum said. The U.S. planes did not return fire.

Kuwait: British forces ready for war, army chief says

British forces will be ready to go to war in Iraq within days if necessary, the country’s army chief said Friday.

The comments by Gen. Mike Jackson came after President Bush warned he was prepared to fight Iraq with or without U.N. backing.

“I would have thought four or five days would pretty much complete the whole logistic piece. But even if it were today, it’s good to go,” Jackson said.

Britain has contributed 45,000 troops to the Gulf buildup — 25,000 of them in Kuwait — compared with about 300,000 U.S. troops gathering in the region.

Turkey: Border reinforced ahead of possible war

Turkey strengthened its forces on the Iraqi border Friday, sending hundreds of trucks and dozens of tanks and artillery guns to the frontier in the largest Turkish military buildup ahead of a possible war.

Turkey has said it would send tens of thousands of troops into northern Iraq in the case of a war to prevent a flood of refugees and the creation of a Kurdish state if Iraq disintegrates. Iraqi Kurds have threatened to resist any Turkish incursion.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman cautioned Turkey on Friday against sending troops into northern Iraq without a coalition.

United Nations: U.N. believes Marines cut fence at Iraqi border

International peacekeepers have complained to the U.N. Security Council about U.S. Marines who they believe are cutting holes in a U.N.-patrolled fence between Kuwait and Iraq.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said peacekeepers who monitor a demilitarized zone set up after the 1991 Persian Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait reported “numerous violations,” since Tuesday “by personnel in civilian clothes in 4×4 vehicles, at least some of whom were armed and identified themselves as U.S. Marines.”

Marine Maj. David Andersen, a public affairs officer for the U.S.-led coalition command center in Kuwait City, said the Marines were investigating.