The first wave of American and British forces landed in Saudi Arabia Wednesday to defend against a possible attack by Iraq as Baghdad announced the annexation of Kuwait and Arab leaders huddled for a last-ditch summit to head off a Middle East war.
As American ground troops and aircraft began arriving in Saudi Arabia, President Bush again demanded that Baghdad withdraw its troops and end its weekong occupation of tiny oil-rich Kuwait.
Bush stressed the U.S. military role would be 'wholly defensive' aimed at guarding against any aggression by Iraq's 'enormous war machine' poised near the Kuwaiti border facing Saudi Arabia's outgunned forces.
'The world's fourth-largest military' has moved 'more than 100,000 troops, along with tanks, artillery and surface-to-surface missiles' into Kuwait and now threatened Saudi Arabia, Bush said.
'America will stand by her friends,' he vowed.
U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell told reporters that vanguard units of the 82nd Airborne Division and fighters had reached Saudi territory in the first placement of the shield to guard the oil-rich Gulf states.
'The first planes have landed in Saudi Arabia and are taking up positions,' Powell said, explaining that the opening wave would involve some 2,300 paratroopers and 48 F-15 fighters.
Powell and Cheney said B-52 strategic bombers would also be based in Saudi Arabia, as well as other troop divisions and aircraft, but they refused to disclose what Washington's ultimate force level would be in the desert kingdom.
The landing of American forces and pending arrival of Washington's armada of warships in the region may have stripped Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of a chance to invade Saudi Arabia, if that had been his intention, analysts said.
Baghdad remained defiant of the mounting military, economic and political pressure, stating Wednesday it had formally annexed Kuwait, which it invaded last Thursday to seize disputed oil and territory.
Radio Baghdad announced Iraq's ruling Revolutionary Command Council had agreed to a request from Iraq's client 'Provisional Free Kuwaiti government,' and that Iraq and Kuwait were now in a 'comprehensive, eternal and inseparable merger unity.'
Radio Cairo said Saddam had declared his powers as head of state now extended over Kuwait.
Baghdad vowed its readiness to fight the approaching 'criminal force' and warned that 'the blood of our martyrs will burn you.'
Iraq later alleged that Israel had painted U.S. military insignias on its aircraft and issued U.S. identity cards to its pilots under plans to carry out 'aggressive missions.'
'We will respond to any hostile action of the kind by Israel,' an Iraqi statement said.
Baghdad has mobilized its 1-million-strong battle-tested army and announced on Tuesday the creation of 25 new divisions from about 300,000 volunteers who flocked to a call-up announcement.
Kuwait's crown prince and prime minister Sheikh Saad Abdullah al Sabah swiftly rejected the idea of uniting with Iraq.
'The legal government of the emirate will continue the struggle against Iraqi aggression,' the heir to the Kuwaiti throne said. 'We will never give up.'
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in a last-ditch bid to find a regional solution to the mounting crisis, proposed an emergency Arab summit, and pledged Cairo's willingness to join an all-Arab peacekeeping force to stand between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Officials said the summit of the 21-nation Arab League would begin on Thursday at 7 p.m at the Cairo Conference center.
Nations that announced attendance plans were Saudi Arabia, Syria, Algeria, Yemen, Libya, Morrocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Djibouti, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, they said.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi landed in Cairo late Wednesday as the first arrival for the meeting.
It remained unclear if Saddam would attend.
Iraq invaded after accusing Kuwait of overproducing oil and driving down world prices, which Baghdad wanted raised to generate money for a reconstruction plan following its ruinous eight-year war with Iran.
U.S. officials in Riyadh said they had advised all American nationals to leave the border zones near Kuwait and not to enter the Gulf states.
In the Gulf states, flights were fully booked as thousands of foreigners and residents departed.
Defense analysts do not believe there will be a large-scale commitment of U.S. ground forces against the massive Iraqi military, but held out the possibility that U.S. retaliation could involve air raids against Iraq.
Italy and Spain announced plans to provide bases for logistical support for the American and British task force.
Egyptian officials reported that U.S. vessels of the 6th Fleet based in the eastern Mediterranean, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, had passed through the Suez Canal.
The flotilla was now en route to link up with another battle group based around the carrier USS Independence in the northern Arabian Sea.
Other warships have departed from the United States, and Washington says it will have 49 vessels -- including three carriers and one battleship -- in the crisis zone within 10 days.
Washington has also flown a group of 14 British-based F-111 bombers to Turkey, on Iraq's northern border.
Britain said it would join America in confronting Saddam after receiving an appeal from Saudi King Fahd.
London already has three warships around the Gulf, and Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said other British naval and air force units may also be sent.
The Soviet Union has one ship in the Gulf, to be supplemented by two others, but Moscow has called for a political solution and has not pledged to involve itself in the now purely Anglo-American task force.
Two French ships are steaming in the area, but Paris announced it would not participate in any multinational action.
Oil sources in the Gulf said an Iraqi oil pipeline through Saudi territory had shut down because tanker ships at the terminus were completely full. Onshore storage drums were still available, they said.
The development followed Turkey's announcement Tuesday that it was halting the flow of Iraqi oil through its territory of a second pipeline in line with a tough trade sanction package called by the U.N. Security Council.
Iraq's Petroleum Minister Essem Halabi traveled to Damascus on a surprise visit, and the British Broadcasting Corp. reported he was trying to persuade Syria to reactivate a third disused pipeline that runs through the territory of its arch-foe.
It was the first official visit by Iraq since both nations broke relations in 1980.
Mubarak, in a 40-minute address that focused on Arab diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, called on Baghdad to attend a regional summit in Egypt 'before it will be too late.'
He said no Egyptian forces had been stationed in Saudi Arabia, but did not clarify whether Cairo had rejected a reported request by Washington for it to assist the U.S. military in Saudi Arabia.
'If I was asked to contribute forces with other Arab joint forces ... I don't think Egypt would not object to this,' said Mubarak, who declared the Arab nation was 'facing a severe test.'
Egypt has one of the region's largest militaries, and through the 21-nation Arab League has called on its ally, Iraq, to withdraw from Kuwait.
'I appeal ... to President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership to respond to the Arab umbrella and withdraw their forces from Kuwait and restore legitimacy to Kuwait, and if there are no objections, that a joint-Arab force will be stationed between the two sides and that negotiations will start,' Muburak said.
'I am sure this can be effective,' he said. 'At the same time, time is passing so fast.'
In Jordan, officials reported 'about two dozen' U.S. citizens and 32 Britons and eight French citizens had landed in Amman aboard an Iraqi Airways aircraft from Baghdad.
More than 400 foreign nationals taken from Kuwait are in the Iraqi capital, and although there have been no indications of any mistreatment, Western nations are anxious that Saddam may be planning to use them as hostages.
A Washington Post report cited U.S. officials as saying the Iraqi Air Force had equipped planes with chemical weapons, which Baghdad has used against Iran and its minority Kurd community.
There was no independent confirmation of the report, nor any signs that the Iraqi troops were preparing for chemical war.
Reports from Baghdad -- where more than 4 million people are reported to have been practicing evacuation drills -- said streets were deserted and the official radio throughout the day played songs in praise of Saddam.
Iraq declared the annexation of Kuwait Wednesday even as U.S. troops, combat planes and a formidable naval force began arriving in the Persian Gulf region to protect Saudi Arabia against what President Bush called Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's 'enormous war machine.'
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied his troops were part of an multinational effort to defend the oil-rich kingdom, and instead called an emergency Arab League summit within 24 hours to press a regional solution to the escalating Persian Gulf crisis.
Mubarak was joined by Jordan's King Hussein, who pledged at a news conference in Amman later in the day to 'do my best now to see an Arab resolution to an Arab problem' in a last-ditch bid to resolve the crisis diplomatically.
Officials said 10 nations swiftly announced their attendance at the Arab League emergency summit scheduled for Thursday in Cairo, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Morrocco and the United Arab Emirates.
It was not immediately clear whether Saddam Hussein would attend.
The first of U.S. troops dispatched by Bush arrived in Saudi Arabia Wednesday, while a group of Americans held in Baghdad was released in Jordan.
Acknowledging that 'the stakes are high,' Bush formally announced and explained his decision to deploy U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, but assured the American people that the United States 'will not initiate hostilties.'
Britain swiftly announced its air and naval forces will join the effort.
The U.S. forces, Bush said, will also 'work together with those of Saudi Arabia and other nations' to see Iraq ends its occupation of Kuwait, try to deter Iraq from attacking Saudi Arabia and intimidate Saddam.
Saddam, who ordered troops to invade tiny Kuwait last Thursday, ousted the government and installed a provisional one after talks to end a territorial and oil dispute collapsed, ignored the growing international economic and military pressure to remove his invasion force from Kuwait.
An unnamed spokesman for Saddam, in a televised address Wednesday in Baghdad, justified the conquest, declaring the move was part of a Kuwaiti 'intifada,' or uprising.
'The Kuwaiti intifada took place on the second of August,' the spokesman said. 'It dealt a blow to a corrupted regime and replaced it with a nationalistic regime. This is a historic and great goal to achieve. A very dear goal to us. History has proved Kuwait is a part of Iraq.'
Radio Baghdad said the ruling Revolutionary Command Council had agreed to a merger request from the Iraq-installed 'provisional free Kuwaiti government,' effectively annexing its tiny neighbor.
Radio reports of the speech said the spokesman announced the establishment of 'complete unity' between Kuwait and Iraq. 'In response to a demand by the temporary Kuwaiti government, an official unity will be established betwen the two countries.'
The spokesman made repeated appeals for Arab unity with Saddam as its leader against the international military force heading toward Gulf, blaming foreign interference for the divisions in the community. 'In the absence of unity, negative repercussions will prevail all over the region,' he said.
The U.S. deployment decision in the region, intended to bolster Saudi defenses against a possible attack, included dozens of warplanes -- bombers as well as fighters -- and several thousand ground troops.
'Iraq has massed an enormous war machine on the Saudi border,' Bush said in his address at the White House. 'To assume Iraq will not attack again will be unwise, unrealistic.
'If history teaches anything, me must resist aggression,' he said, drawing a parallel between Saddam to expansionist policies of dictators like Adolf Hitler.
At a news conference later, Bush said he was concerned about reports that Iraq was mobilizing chemical weapons units. He noted that Iraq has used chemical warfare in the past but 'it would be intolerable' if U.S. forces were attacked with poison gas and 'would be dealt with very, very severely.'
Britain announced it had ordered naval and air forces to join the multinational effort confronting Iraq, but did not disclose details.
'We will be in urgent touch with the Unitd States, our other allies and our friends in the Gulf on the contribution which we can best make,' British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said.
Another American ally, Italy, gave permission for U.S. aircraft to use Italian bases for transit and logistical support en route to the Persian Gulf, and American warplanes immediately began ferrying through Italy. Turkey and Greece also offered access to air bases.
France said it did not plan for the moment to join such a force, but has sent ships toward the region, as has the Soviet Union in a rare display of unity, although Moscow has also pledged not to involve itself in the now purely Anglo-American task force.NEWLN: more
The Pentagon refused to divulge how many U.S. troops were bound for Saudi Arabia or what other countries, beside Britain, might join the U.S.-led multinational presence in the region.
Sources said the initial deployments to Saudi Arabia included thousands of paratroopers and at least 48 F-15 fighters. A mechanized infantry division was expected to be sent later. The United States already has 34 warships in the area, with some 15 others on the way.
Mubarak denied that Egyptian forces had been sent to Saudi Arabia, but he gave the United States permission to move the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower and other warships of the 6th Fleet in the eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea.
He also left the door open for possible cooperation in an Arab peace-keeping force.
'If I was asked to contribute forces with other Arab joint forces ..., I don't think Egypt would not object to this,' said Mubarak, who declared the Arab nation was 'facing a severe test.'
Urging Iraq to take part in negotiations, Mubarak warned that Iraq might experience a 'severe blow from any direction' and predicted 'an aggression which could be terrifying and destructive' if talks failed to begin.
He also criticized Arab nations for their slow response to the Iraqi invasion, indicating that the United States, Britain and France had been forced to fill the gap by the Arab world's inaction.
In Jordan, officials reported that 'about two dozen' U.S. citizens, 32 Britons and eight French citizens had landed aboard an Iraqi Airways aircraft from Baghdad.
More than 400 foreign nationals taken from Kuwait are in the Iraqi capital, and although there have been no indications of any mistreatment, Western nations are anxious that Saddam may be planning to use them as hostages.
The State Department said 39 Americans were being held in a Baghdad hotel and told they could not leave.
Claiming a broad international consensus that 'Iraq not be allowed to benefit from its invasion of Kuwait,' Bush called for strict adherence to U.N.-ordered sanctions against Saddam, which could soon be enforced by a naval blockade.
Oil sources in the Persian Gulf said an Iraqi oil pipeline through Saudi territory had shut down because tanker ships at the terminus were completely full.
The development followed Turkey's announcement Tuesday that it was stopping the flow of Iraqi oil through its territory of the other main pipelines in concert with the U.N.-sanctioned embargo.
Iraqi Petroleum Minister Essem Halabi traveled to Damascus on a surprise visit, and the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Arabic Service reported he was trying to persuade Syria to reactivate a third pipeline running through the territory of its archenemy. It was the first official visit by Iraq since the nations broke ties in 1980.
The deposed Kuwaiti government's top envoy in Washington, Sheik Saud Nasir al-Sabah, said Bush had called him in to renew the U.S. commitment for freedom and sovereignty of Kuwait.
And the ousted Kuwaiti crown prince and prime minister, Sheikh Saad Abdullah al Sabah, denounced the idea of uniting with Iraq.
'The legal government of the emirate will continue the struggle against Iraqi aggression,' the heir to the Kuwaiti throne said during a rally of about 300 royalist supporters in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. 'We will never give up.'
Reports from Baghdad -- where more than 4 million people are reported to have been practicing evacuation drills -- said streets were deserted and the official radio throughout the day played songs in praise of Saddam.
'Iraq and Kuwait share one history, one fate,' the station said. 'We are with you free men of Kuwait, while you are a bright page in Arab history.'
Iraq has mobilized its battle-tested army and announced on Tuesday the creation of 25 new divisions from about 300,000 volunteers who flocked to a call-up announcement to serve in occupied Kuwait.
In the gulf states, airline flights were fully booked as thousands of foreigners and residents departed.
Many businesses reduced to skeleton staffs and evacuated personnel, and banks that dealt with the Kuwaiti currency, the dinar, have laid off staff because of the Baghdad's declaration that it had been integrated with Iraqi money at one-twelfth of its value.
