US Bombs Iraq (Again)
Compliments of UPI
U.S. Strikes Iraqi Sites Second Day in a Row
PAMELA HESS, UPI Pentagon Correspondent WASHINGTON,
Saturday, Aug. 31, 2002
During a week when Vice President Dick Cheney made two speeches laying out a case for a U.S. attack on Iraq, coalition aircraft twice bombed Iraqi military targets near al Kut in southern Iraq, striking a missile radar system Thursday and the surface-to-air missile site itself Friday, according to U.S. Central Command. It was the eighth strike in the southern no-fly zone this month, a sharp increase in activity this year, during which there have been a total of 29 strikes.
After months of little activity, there have also been attacks in the southern no-fly zone on Aug. 5, Aug. 14, Aug. 20, last Sunday and Tuesday. U.S. Central Command says there have been more than 120 separate incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed against coalition aircraft this year.
The northern no-fly zone has been less active, with two strikes this month and 10 this year, the latest on Aug. 27. On Aug. 23, U.S. jets attacked a missile-guidance radar system in northern Iraq, the first such incident there since July 4. The United States and the United Kingdom created and have been enforcing two no-fly zones over Iraq for nearly a decade to protect Kurd minorities in the north and Shiites in the south. The zones also serve to keep Iraq's military in check by keeping aircraft grounded, destroying air-defense radars and missile sites, and providing early notice if the military engages in maneuvers or moves large numbers of troops.
The enforcement of the zones went unchallenged until December 1998 when the United States launched a four-day strike on Baghdad to punish it for resisting U.N. arms inspections. Since then, Iraq's military has frequently challenged the daily flights over the northern and southern portions of the country, sometimes firing on aircraft but often "painting" them with radar. The aircraft often respond by attacking those sites or others on their target list in self-defense, the military says.
There have been no U.N. inspections of Iraq's suspected chemical, biological or nuclear arsenal for more than three years. "With Saddam's record of thwarting inspections, one has to be concerned that he would continue to plot, using the available time to husband his resources, to invest in his ongoing chemical and biological weapons programs, and to gain the possession of nuclear weapons," Cheney told an audience of Korean War Veterans Thursday in San Antonio. "We must not simply look away, hope for the best, and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve."
-- Copyright 2002 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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