Fellow Arabs Man Battle Stations on Saudi Front Line

HAFAR AL BATIN, Saudi Arabia — An Arab multinational force of thousands has dug in along the border near here, their tanks, radar unit, artillery and missile battery painted thinly across the desert floor as Saudi Arabia’s first line of defense.

In an eerie moonscape that at one point stands just 24 miles from Iraqi troops, the camouflage tents and military equipment of the Arab forces rise up sporadically out of the flat sand of a desert that stretches without perceptible rise to all points on the horizon.

These camps are well forward of the American forces deployed farther south and east, and house the soldiers who not only would take the first hit from any invading Iraqi troops, but who would probably be the first to cross into Kuwait in any military push to liberate that tiny occupied emirate from the grasp of Iraq.

In the media flurry over the 100,000-strong American force on its way to the Persian Gulf, the Saudi, Egyptian, Moroccan, Syrian and Arab gulf forces have almost imperceptibly moved into the front line, their movement seldom announced, their numbers uncertain, their commanders unidentified.

“Basically, we’re here to prepare to defend the border,” said the major general who commands Peninsula Shield, the 10,000-troop force from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait that has been stationed at the giant Saudi military base near here for the past two years.

“We are here on alert either to move forward, stay or pull back,” said the commander, who along with other military officials could not be identified under Saudi regulations.

“We are not going to give up any meters of our land. They must pass over our bodies first,” another Saudi officer declared. He and other field commanders spoke Saturday during the first tour by Western journalists of the Arab positions.

Saudi troops hold the most forward positions, flanked by Peninsula Shield troops and, nearby, an estimated 2,000 troops from Egypt and slightly smaller contingents of Moroccans, Syrians and some Kuwaitis who escaped Iraq in the wake of Baghdad’s Aug. 2 invasion.

It is an unenviable posting. While many American forces have been deployed in large tent cities or air-conditioned temporary barracks, the Arab troops are deployed a few dozen per unit in makeshift settlements that are usually no more than two or three tents, several trucks and some missile batteries or artillery emplacements. Then the desert begins again.

In one of the Egyptian camps Saturday, laundry hung outside a camouflage tent. In all the tents, soldiers gathered eagerly around reporters to watch, but often fell back shyly when asked what seemed to be obvious questions: Are they willing as Arabs and Muslims to take up arms against another Arab and Muslim country?

“I am defending the Saudi Arabian territory regardless of who the offender is, because it’s the Holy Land, as far as Muslims are concerned,” said the army colonel leading the Egyptian contingent of 2,000 commandos who have now been stationed in the desert for eight days.

The commander of an air-defense battalion, which scans for incoming planes along the border and prepares to destroy any that cross over, explains: “Always it bothers us to fight another Arab, but the situation is different now. They occupy another country.”

Kuwaiti military men, estimated to number between a few hundred and 1,000, have their own camps near the border, along with assorted light tanks and artillery they managed to haul with them across the border from Kuwait before the Iraqi troops could stop them.

“We want to fight. When they take our country, everybody wants to go back,” said the Kuwaiti commander. “Next time,” he called out after departing reporters, “we’ll see you in Kuwait!”

The leaders of the six GCC countries decided last week to beef up their Peninsula Shield force in Saudi Arabia by an unspecified number of troops, citing the imminent threat to peace in the region.

“Despite their humble size, they express the determination of the GCC states to confront the danger collectively,” said Abdullah Bishara, general secretary of the GCC.

Military sources say that, should any decision be made to move into Kuwait, it would for political reasons be much better to have the united Arab forces of the GCC making the first crossing, rather than American troops.

However, military officials have repeatedly denied that Arab forces were stationed nearest the border because they would be expected to take the heaviest casualties in any Iraqi invasion. American forces are generally deployed near vital oil fields and industrial facilities in the Eastern Province and are at just as great a risk, a Saudi military official said.

In the meantime, the Arab troops here camp in the furnace-like heat of the Saudi summer and wait for a decision--go or no go, fight or go home--over which they have virtually no control.

“The waiting is making people nervous,” one of the Arab troop commanders said. “Military people, if they’re going on a mission, they should finish it. I assume one day we are going to move--in a forward direction.”

“We hope no fighting,” one Saudi soldier in the air-defense unit said. “Because all are Arab and Muslim. But what we must, we do. . . . We will meet them and protect our country and our people--we are not going to allow them to come here any time, unless we are dead.”