SAUDIS PREPARE TO DEPLOY INTERMEDIATE-RANGE MISSILES

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Saudi Arabia has prepared for the deployment of intermediate-range ballistic missiles in its southern desert.

A Washington-based defense group reports that Saudi Arabia has built facilities for intermediate-range missiles in a newly-constructed complex north of the desert oasis of Al Sulayyil. The complex is said to contain two missile launch areas six kilometers apart as well as a huge support system.

Global Security, the defense group, released photographs taken three weeks ago from the Ikonos satellite of what were identified as two missile bases and a complex of 33 buildings, eight of them capable of storing Chinese CSS-2 missiles. The photographs, also published in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, identified the missiles as the CSS-2, reported to have a range of between 2,500 and 3,500 kilometers. The missile, 24 meters long, is capable of carrying a nonconventional warhead.