US-Iraq

[Guest]

U.S. Planes Attack Iraq Radar Sites

 

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Anti-aircraft fire flashed in the night sky over the Iraqi capital and sirens drove frightened residents from the streets Friday as U.S. and British warplanes struck outside Baghdad. Iraq said the attack injured nine people.

 

Sirens started wailing at about 9 p.m., followed soon after by explosions from anti-aircraft weaponry from the southern and western outskirts of the city of more than 5 million people.

 

Some residents of the capital - which has not heard air raid sirens for nearly two years - huddled together in fear in their houses. Others, however, braved the danger to watch the sky.

 

``How many times do they destroy what they themselves said they have already destroyed?'' asked Samih Jamal, a 54-year-old retired government worker.

 

In Washington, Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold said the strike was aimed at stopping Iraqi attempts to make a ``safe haven'' for radar and command-and-control sites to conduct attacks on allied planes bombing in the northern and southern no fly zones.

 

Iraqi air defenses regularly target U.S. and British patrols in the zones, and the allies planes almost daily strike targets in the north and south.

 

In Friday's assault, two dozen warplanes fired long-range missiles at radar systems to the south and north of Baghdad. It was the first strike outside the southern no-fly zone since December 1998.

 

State-run Al-Shabab TV broadcast pictures of civilians it said were injured in the attack. Nine people, including at least three children, were treated for various injuries at al-Yarmouk Hospital.

 

``It is another aggression on Baghdad that resulted of the injury of many women, children and elderly,'' said Health Minister Omed Medhat Mubarak. ``Some of them are in critical condition.''

 

Almost 50 minutes after the sirens first sounded, more sirens announced the end of the airstrikes. People began milling around the streets, shaking their heads and discussing the events of the last hour, but soon returned to their homes. Air raid sirens last went off in Baghdad in February 1999 after strikes inside the no-fly zone.

 

President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was meeting with his Revolutionary Command Council and the government was expected to issue an official statement later Friday.

 

President Bush (news - web sites) authorized the strikes Thursday morning, 10 years after a U.S.-led coalition assembled by his father drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait. British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s office said the raids had been authorized by Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon earlier this week following discussions with the United States.

 

Hoon called the attacks a ``proportionate response'' to increasing attacks on allied aircraft patrolling in the south by increasingly sophisticated Iraqi defenses.

 

``Saddam Hussein should be clear that we will not tolerate continued attempts to endanger the lives of our aircrew,'' Hoon said. ``But if he stops shooting at us there will be no need for the RAF to attack his air defenses.''

 

The allied warplanes struck their targets Friday without leaving the southern no-fly zone, using ``standoff'' weapons that zero in on targets from a distance, where the pilot is safer, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said.

 

All planes returned safely to base, and the Pentagon said that the operation appeared to have been successful and no more strikes were needed soon.

 

The planes involved in the strikes came from various locations in the Persian Gulf.

 

U.S. and British warplanes have been patrolling no-fly zones in the north and south of the Iraq since the Gulf War (news - web sites), which ended in February 1991 with the end of Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.

 

Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones and has been challenging allied aircraft since December 1998. The allies say their planes never target civilians, but Iraq reports that strikes have killed some 300 people and injured more than 800.

[Guest]

Iraq Threatens Retaliation for Western Attacks

 

 

By Hassan Hafidh

 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq vowed revenge on Saturday for U.S. and British attacks near Baghdad it said had killed two civilians, while Russia and China led a chorus of international concern over raids seen as threatening Middle East stability.

 

France, a member of the Gulf War (news - web sites) coalition that ended Iraq's 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait, said it wanted explanations from Washington about the first major Iraq raid authorized by new U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites).

 

Echoing that concern, Turkey reproached NATO (news - web sites)-ally Washington for not informing it beforehand of the attacks and said it hoped such raids would not be repeated.

 

The Arab League said the first Western air strike in the vicinity of the Iraqi capital since December 1998 had violated international law and would stoke anger across the Arab world.

 

But U.S. ally Israel expressed understanding for the assault, saying the country that invaded and occupied Kuwait in 1990-91 still posed a threat as it was rebuilding its military.

 

Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) said Britain was ready to authorize further action against Iraq if Baghdad continued to attack British aircrews patrolling no-fly zones.

 

Baghdad's official press reacted furiously to the attacks.

 

``The Americans' and Britons' new, savage crime will not pass unpunished and without decisive retaliation,'' the official Qadissiya newspaper said in a front-page editorial.

 

``We will teach the new American administration and the Zionist entity (Israel) lessons on Jihad (holy war) and steadfastness,'' it said, adding the strike targets were civilian.

 

Several hundred Iraqis and Palestinians living in Iraq marched in Baghdad streets protesting against the raids.

 

``We will fight them in the air, on land and sea and their aggression will achieve nothing but failure,'' said an official statement broadcast on Iraqi television after a meeting of Iraqi leaders chaired by President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

 

Iraq Also Blames Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

 

The statement also blamed Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for providing bases for coalition forces in the region.

 

The Iraqi Health Ministry announced that two Iraqi civilians had been killed and more than 20 others wounded in the raids against targets on the outskirts of Baghdad.

 

The United States said its planes attacked Iraqi radar systems. U.S. officials said 24 U.S. and British planes struck five Iraqi military targets five to 20 miles from Baghdad using various long-range precision-guided weapons.

 

One of the reported victims was an 18-year-old woman and television pictures showed a man, apparently in his 30s, who was reported to have died in the attack. The Iraqi news agency named the dead as Aliah Atshan Abdullah and Khalil Hameed Alwash.

 

The demonstrators cursed the United States, Britain and Israel and burned an Israeli flag.

 

Photos

 

Reuters Photo

 

 

``We are here to say to all the world we are ready to fight the enemy everywhere,'' Fadhil Mahmoud, a shopkeeper, said.

 

The protesters also chanted slogans in praise of Saddam. ''With our soul and blood, we defend you Saddam,'' they shouted.

 

In the United States, Bush said he would take ``appropriate action'' if Saddam made weapons of mass destruction.

 

Blair said the raids against air defense systems were ``a limited operation with the sole purpose of defending the pilots and aircrew who patrol the no-fly zones.''

 

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the attacks ``prove that Washington and London continue to rely on acts of force toward Iraq. Such a line contradicts the U.N. Charter and other norms of international law and worsens an already explosive situation in the Middle East and the Gulf.''

 

China appealed to the United States and Britain to stop military actions in Iraq immediately.

 

``This (raid) raises a question mark. We await an explanation from the American administration,'' French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau said in a brief statement.

 

France fought alongside Western allies in the 1991 Gulf War and afterwards helped impose no-fly zones aimed at protecting opposition groups in the north and south of the country.

 

But France has increasingly distanced itself from U.S.-British policy on Baghdad, saying in the past that it did not understand the point of continued military strikes against Iraq. Its planes no longer help enforce the no-fly zones.

 

Houses, Shops Damaged

 

In the first Gulf Arab reaction, Qatar said the attacks were regrettable and should not be repeated. But state-run media in Gulf Arab states reported the strike without comment.

 

The Cairo-based Arab League angrily condemned the attacks.

 

``This raid which has killed a number of innocent citizens has no justification, violates international law, and has provoked anger and resentment in the Arab world,'' it said.

 

Iraqi television showed houses and shops in an area in Baghdad it said was damaged by the strikes. Reporters for Western media based in Baghdad have not yet been allowed to visit the targeted locations.

 

U.S. and British warplanes patrolled no-fly zones have regularly attacked targets in the south and north since Baghdad started to challenge Western planes patrolling the no-fly zones in December 1998.

 

The United States and Britain launched a four-day bombing campaign in 1998 to punish Iraq for not cooperating with U.N. arms inspectors charged with eliminating the country's weapons of mass destruction.