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 US Will Announce Iraq War In 3 Weeks

MOSCOW - A Russian news agency quoted an unidentified source in the Russian military Thursday as saying the United States would announce a decision to launch a war on Iraq within three weeks.

The source said the U.S. administration will make a formal decision to conduct a military operation immediately after the U.S. military and its allies create "battle groups" in the region, which will take two or three weeks, the Interfax news agency reported.

The war in Iraq could start sometime during the last 10 days of February, the agency quoted the source as saying. Interfax identified its interlocutor only as a high-level source in the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

Judging by past experience, the source said, the United States will inform Russia on the eve of the military action, which will begin with a day or two of strikes from the air and sea followed by a ground invasion.

According to Interfax, the source said the United States has effectively halted efforts to destroy the infrastructure of the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan in order to concentrate forces in the Persian Gulf.

Some of the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan in nearly a year took place earlier this week.

AP

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