UNITED STATES forces in Saudi Arabia have been on maximum alert since the deadly truck bombing in June, and commanders have been asked to prepare for an "imminent" attack, a US military spokesman said yesterday.
US forces have received "no direct threat" against a specific target since the bombing, but a pool of intelligence suggests there will be another attack, Maj Jim Stratford said by telephone from Riyadh.
"We have to be in such a posture to be able to easily defend ourselves," he explained.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Perry, said at the weekend that Washington had put its forces in Saudi Arabia on "the highest possible threat level" and instructed commanders to prepare for an "imminent" attack. Mr Perry did not say exactly when the alert status had changed.
But Maj Stratford said US forces have been on maximum alert since 19 US airmen were killed and hundreds wounded in the June 25th truck bombing at a US military dormitory serving the King Abdel Aziz air base in Khobar, eastern Saudi Arabia.
Mr Perry said the next attack might be different. "It might be standoff weapons (such as mortars), it might be chemical weapons, it might be larger bombs than they've used in the past," he said.
The Defence Secretary was speaking in Washington after returning from a visit to Saudi Arabia last week, where he agreed to move US air forces urgently from Khobar and Riyadh to a more secure and remote base at Kharj, south of Riyadh.
US planes of the Joint Task Force Southwest Asia patrol the no fly zone over southwest Iraq to protect Shia Muslims from attack.
Mr Perry said the move to Kharj of some 4,000 US military personnel, as well as British and French forces, would be carried out within two to six weeks.
He warned that the US would take "strong action" if there were concrete proof of third country involvement, and charged that Iran was at the forefront of international terrorism.
Meanwhile, Iran warned yesterday against a mounting US campaign against the Islamic republic and called for immediate UN action to stop the "dangerous" move.
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr Ali Akbar Velayati, wrote to the UN Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, accusing Washington of "looking for an excuse for adventurism against and confrontation with Iran."
. The bodies of a pilot and a flight engineer from the TWA Jumbo jet which crashed off New York on July 17th have been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. Capt Ralph Kevorkian (58), from California, and Mr Richard Campbell (63), a flight engineer from Connecticut, were identified by medical examiners.