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U.S. forces deny plans to set up base in
Kurdistani Halabja
18.7.2008
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July
18, 2008
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region "Iraq", —
The U.S. forces in Iraq on Friday dismissed reported
plans to use the Halabja airport project as a
"cover" for a military base.
"The U.S. forces do not have any plans to use the
Halabja airport project in an area adjacent to the
Iranian borders as a cover for a military base, and
do not have any previous knowledge about this
issue," the U.S. forces' media advisor, Abdellatif
Rayan told VOI.
Khidr Kareem Muhammad,www.ekurd.net
the chief of the
municipality of Halabja, 83 km southeastern
Sulaimaniyah province, had told VOI on Tuesday that
the municipality has allocated a plot of land in
eastern Halabja for the construction of an airport
to be financed by the United States.
However, an official source supported the
possibility that the project would be a "cover" for
an airbase to be used by the Americans in their
military operations.
"The project is much larger than just a civilian
airport. Most probably it is a large military base
that is financed by the Americans," the source, who
did not want his name revealed, said.
A number of Kurdish officials had said in more than
one occasion that they would not mind having a
(U.S.) military base in the autonomous Iraqi
Kurdistan Region.
In early 2007, Iraqi Kurdistan Region President
Massoud Barzani, in an interview with the French
newspaper Le Monde, welcomed the building of a U.S.
base in the region's territories by virtue of an
agreement between the autonomous government in Erbil
and Baghdad's central government.
The Kurdish source had revealed on Tuesday that a
delegation from the U.S. consulate in Erbil "had
visited Halabja several months ago and studied the
main and branch roads leading to Iran on the pretext
of providing services for the district".
Halabja had come on March 16,www.ekurd.net
1988 under brutal
chemical attacks by the former Iraqi regime, leaving
more than 5,000 Kurdish civilians killed and more
than 10,000 others injured.
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's cultural capital and one
of the three Kurdish provinces, lies 364 km north of
the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI
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