The United States will launch an attack on Iraq in May, Israeli defence experts predicted Sunday.
The military experts, who were not identified, told best-selling daily Yediot Aharonot that the Pentagon has received the green light to start preparations for an offensive against Iraq as the second phase of Washington's global war on terror after Afghanistan.
The Israelis said the Americans had already started mustering the necessary troops and were coordinating with the Iraqi opposition.
Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who is due in Washington this week, is to ask the US administration to coordinate its offensive with the Israeli leadership, the paper said.
During the 1991 Gulf War when a US-led coalition forced Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops out of Kuwait, Israel was hit by 39 Iraqi Scud missiles which killed two people and injured hundreds.
Yediot added that according to Ben Eliezer, the United States will not ask Israel to show restraint in case of it being attacked by Iraq.
(China Daily Februray 4, 2002)
