Given the complete breakdown of the so-called "peace process," we may expect that the Empire will take a harder line on the Middle East, and the escalation of the bombings of Iraq is probably just the beginning.
Yoshie
***** Agence France Presse February 17, 2001, Saturday 2:16 AM, Eastern Time SECTION: International news HEADLINE: Iraq says one dead, 11 hurt in first US bombing of Baghdad in two years BYLINE: Kamal Taha and Farouk Choukri DATELINE: BAGHDAD, Feb 17
US warplanes bombed Baghdad on Friday killing a woman and wounding 11 other civilians, Iraq reported, in the first raids on the capital since 1998 which Washington said knocked out air defence systems.
"Baghdad was bombed today by enemy American planes," state television announced. "This aggression is not new. American enemy planes bomb Iraqi cities daily."
President Saddam Hussein chaired a meeting of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council and the leadership of the Baath party after "the criminal American aggression against Iraq" and vowed to pursue the fight.
"The aggression will not force Iraq to give up its rights," a communique published after the session said. "Iraq will continue to fight them (enemies) on land, in the air and at sea. Iraq will finally win," it vowed.
"This aggression is explained by a Zionist and American plot and prepares the ground for operations by the Zionist entity against the Arabs and Palestinians," the communique said.
It gave no detail about the targets or damage.
The dead woman, who succumbed to her injuries in hospital, was not identified.
"The injured are women, children and old people, some are critical cases," Health Minister Umaid Mehdat Mubarak said on Iraqi youth television, run by Saddam's eldest son Uday.
A total of 11 people were admitted to two hospitals with injuries from the bombings, doctors said.
Footage shown from Al Yarmuk hospital showed children, women and men bleeding from leg and stomach wounds.
A doctor said one of the children, named Iyad Ahmed Salman, was "very gravely wounded in the stomach and leg."
Russia condemned the raids and a top defense ministry official accused the Bush administration of ignoring international humanitarian norms.
"What the American military is in the process of doing, at the beginning of the new US administration, is a threat to international security and the entire international community," General Leonid Ivashov told Interfax.
The raids were the first significant military strike since US President George W. Bush, who was in Mexico on Friday, took office nearly a month ago.
In San Cristobal, Bush said: "A routine mission was conducted to enforce the no-fly zone. It is a mission about which I was informed and I authorized.
"Saddam Hussein has got to understand that we expect him to conform to the agreement he signed after Desert Storm," Bush said, referring to the 1991 Gulf War campaign conducted by his father, then-president George Bush.
The air strikes were in response to recent and more sophisticated Iraqi efforts to use the air defense installations around Baghdad to coordinate surface-to-air missile attacks against US and British aircraft, said Marine Corps Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, operations director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We think we've accomplished what we were looking for in this sense to degrade, disrupt the ability of the Iraqi air defenses to coordinate attacks against our aircraft....We don't anticipate strikes like this soon."
Two dozen strike aircraft from an aircraft carrier and land bases in the Gulf launched the attack at 1730 GMT, firing long-range precision guided munitions from within the southern no-fly zone, Pentagon officials said.
"We have no indications that there are any of the strikes that might have gone amiss," Newbold added.
In London, the defence ministry confirmed that British jets took part.
"Some targets were attacked north of the 33rd parallel, which marks the limit of the southern 'no fly' zone," a defence spokesman said.
"Faced with the significant rise in the number of attacks on our air crews, we had no choice but to take action to protect them," the spokesman added.
He described the strikes as "a targetted and measured response to the dramatic increase in attacks on coalition aircraft in January," adding the operation was approved earlier this week by Defence Minister Geoff Hoon after consultations with Washington.
An AFP reporter in the Iraqi capital heard several loud explosions and anti-aircraft defenses opened fire shortly after air raid warning sirens wailed out.
Incidents occur almost daily between Iraq and US and British warplanes enforcing no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, but the last raids on Baghdad were in December 1998.
Iraq says 324 people have been killed by raids since December 1998, when it began to challenge the patrols after a US-British bombing campaign.
The United States and Britain launched a four-day aerial assault codenamed Operation Desert Fox to punish Baghdad for refusing to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors. *****
*****
***** February 16, 2001
U.S., British Planes Attack Iraqi Targets
By REUTERS
Filed at 6:21 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and British aircraft attacked targets near Baghdad on Friday and President George W. Bush said Washington would take ``appropriate action'' if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein produced weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. Defense officials said 24 American and British planes struck five Iraqi military targets five to 20 miles from Baghdad using various long-range precision-guided weapons.
Iraqi television broadcast an official statement saying planes had struck targets on the outskirts of Baghdad. The statement was issued after a meeting of Iraqi leaders chaired by Saddam.
``We will fight them in the air, on land and sea and their aggression will achieve nothing but failure,'' it said. The statement also blamed Kuwait and Saudi Arabia which provide bases for coalition forces in the region.
Iraqi television said the attack was the first Western strike against the capital since December 1998.
At Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital, physician Dr. Omar al-Abdali said nine wounded people, some critically hurt, had been admitted.
The Defense Department said the planes had hit Iraqi air defenses outside the Western-imposed no-fly zone south of Baghdad. A spokesman said no further attacks were expected soon.
President Bush, speaking after he had authorized the strikes, told a news conference during a one-day visit to Mexico that Washington was keeping a close eye on Iraq.
``We're going to watch very carefully as to whether or not he develops weapons of mass destruction, and if we catch him doing so, we'll take the appropriate action,'' said Bush, whose father George Bush was president during the 1990-91 Gulf War that drove invading Iraqis out of Kuwait.
George W. Bush, who took office on January 20, said the United States would continue to enforce the no-fly zones imposed after the Gulf War to protect a Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq and anti-Baghdad Shi'te Muslims in the south.
The northern edge of the southern zone -- the 33rd parallel -- lies just south of Baghdad.
LOUD EXPLOSIONS HEARD
Sirens wailed over Baghdad, loud explosions were heard and anti-aircraft systems opened fire.
The Defense Department said the planes struck Iraqi radar systems at about 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST.
Bush said the attack was a routine mission but had required the President's personal authorization.
The British Defense Ministry said British and American planes attacked six sites, comprising part of Iraq's integrated Air Defense System.
``This was a proportionate response to a recent increase in the threat to aircraft carrying out legitimate humanitarian patrols in the southern no-fly zone,'' Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said in a statement.
A leading hawk in the Russian military, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, condemned the air strikes and accused Washington of acting like the world's policeman. Ivashov, head of the military's foreign relations department, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying this was a dangerous tendency.
Iraqi television showed Health Minister Umeed Madhat Mubarak visiting Yarmouk hospital. Some of the victims shown on television said they were wounded while walking in the al-Mansur area in central Baghdad.
While there have been a number of strikes on targets in the northern and southern no-fly zones, the last time Baghdad came under attack was in December 1998.
The United States and Britain launched a four-day bombing campaign in 1998 to punish Iraq for expelling U.N. arms inspectors charged with eliminating the country's weapons of mass destruction. *****
***** New York Times 16 February 2001
U.S. and British Forces Attack Air Defense Installations in Iraq
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Two dozen American and British warplanes blasted Iraqi air defense targets around Baghdad today in response to what military officials said were heightened and more accurate attacks on the planes patrolling a "no flight" zone over the southern part of the country.
The jets struck at five radar and command and control sites, four of them above the 33rd parallel that marks the boundary of the no flight zone, and all in uninhabited areas, said Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, the Pentagon's joint staff director of operations.
The targets were 5 to 20 miles from Baghdad, he said. General Newbold gave no information on casualties, but Iraqi news media said some civilians were injured.
"All indications we have are that the strikes were conducted efficiently and effectively," the general said. No further attacks were expected in the immediate future, he said.
Clashes in the area have been constant since a four-day bombing campaign at the end of 1998, but today's attack was particularly intense. Nevertheless, deflecting the suggestion that he was hardening the American line on Iraq, President Bush called the attack a "routine mission" which he authorized.
"We will continue to enforce the no fly zone until the world is told otherwise," Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Mexico, where he was holding talks with President Vicente Fox. "Our intention is to make sure that the world is as peaceful as possible," he said. But Mr. Bush said that the United States would continue to monitor whether Iraq was seeking to build weapons of mass destruction. "If we catch him doing so, we will take the appropriate action," he said.
The operation began about 11:20 a.m. Eastern time and ended at at 1:40 p.m. The planes never crossed north of the 33rd parallel, and they used long-range, precision-guided weapons, officials said.
Since previous allied strikes dented the Iraqis ability to track warplanes in the southern zone, Baghdad has been using radar bases north to coordinate missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire, General Newbold said.
"The Iraq air defenses had been increasing both their frequency and the sophistication of their operations," he said. That "had yielded an increased threat to our aircraft and our crews."
"It reached the point that it was obvious to our forces to conduct an operation to safeguard those pilots and the aircraft," he said, calling today's strikes "essentially a self-defense measure."
Pilots were seeing missile plumes and anti-aircraft artillery explosions outside their planes in what had become an almost daily threat, General Newbold said.
He said the operation was recommended by the pilots who patrol the southern Iraqi skies, and a Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, stressed that the mission originated with the Central Command in response to questions about whether President Bush had ordered it.
The Iraqi missile and artillery fire has increased since the beginning of the year, with more than 60 incidents since then, the United States Central Command said. Two smaller scale allied strikes were reported earlier this week.
Western news agencies reported from Baghdad that sirens wailed in the city and that explosions and anti-aircraft fire could be heard. One Iraqi television station interrupted its programming to play patriotic songs and show images of commandos training.
The allied jets and Iraqi forces in the south have clashed regularly since December 1998, when the United States and Britain began four nights of air strikes to punish Iraq for refusing to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors. Clashes have also occurred in the "no flight" zone over northern Iraq.
The zones were established after the Persian Gulf war. The United States and Britain, citing United Nations resolutions, said they were necessary to protect Iraq's Kurdish minority in the north and Shiite minority in the south.
Iraq does not recognize the "no flight" zones, and the Pentagon says Iraq has fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at allied warplanes more than 700 times since December 1998. Iraqi aircraft have entered the southern "no flight" zone more than 150 times since then, the Pentagon said.
Iraq says allied attacks have killed and wounded civilians, but Washington says the planes never target civilians. *****
***** February 16, 2001
Chronology of Strikes Against Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:39 p.m. ET
A list of some of the most significant strikes by allied forces against Iraq since the Persian Gulf War. U.S. and British warplanes strike Iraqi defense sites almost daily in the no-fly zones.
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 says strikes have killed some 300 people and injured more than 800.
-- Feb. 26, 1991: U.S.-led coalition forces Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. Baghdad accepts cease-fire two days later.
-- April 1991: United States, France, Britain declare 19,000-square-mile area of northern Iraq ``safe haven'' for Kurds and impose no-fly zone north of 36th parallel.
-- Aug. 27, 1992: United States, backed by Britain and France, declares ``no-fly'' zone over southern Iraq to protect Shiite Muslim rebels. United States and some allies begin air patrols.
-- Jan. 7, 1993: After Baghdad refuses to remove missiles that United States says it has moved into southern Iraq, allied warplanes and warships attack missile sites and a nuclear facility near Baghdad.
-- June 27, 1993: U.S. warships fire 24 cruise missiles at intelligence headquarters in Baghdad in retaliation for what the United States calls plot to assassinate President Bush.
-- April 14, 1994: Allied planes enforcing no-fly zone shoot down two U.S. helicopters carrying a U.N. relief mission, mistaking them for Iraqi helicopters. Twenty-six people are killed, including 15 Americans.
-- Sept. 3-4, 1996: U.S. ships and airplanes fire scores of cruise missiles at Iraqi anti-missile sites to punish the Iraqi military for venturing into the Kurdish ``safe haven'' in northern Iraq.
-- Sept. 11, 1996: Iraqi forces fire a missile at two F-16s in the northern no-fly zone. United States responds by sending more bombers, stealth fighters and another aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region. Iraq accuses Kuwait of an ``act of war'' for allowing U.S. jets into Kuwait.
-- November, 1996: Two U.S. F-16 pilots fire missiles at Iraqi radar sites near the 32nd parallel in the southern no-fly zone.
-- June 30, 1998: A U.S. F-16 fighter fires a missile at an Iraqi surface-to-air missile battery in southern Iraq after Iraqi radar locks on four British patrol planes.
-- Dec. 16, 1998: Weapons inspectors withdrawn from Iraq. Hours later, four days of U.S.-British air and missile strikes begin, pounding Baghdad.
-- Feb. 10, 1999: U.S. and British warplanes fire at two air defense sites in Iraq after three waves of Iraqi fighter jets violate southern ``no-fly'' zone.
-- Feb. 24, 1999: Air Force and Navy aircraft attack two Iraqi surface-to-air missile sites near Al Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, in response to anti-aircraft artillery fire and an Iraqi aircraft violation of southern no-fly zone.
-- November 22, 1999: Navy fighters fire missiles at a ``surface-to-air missile site'' after Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery fire at a coalition aircraft. The site was located near the city of an-Najaf, about 85 miles south of Baghdad.
-- April 4, 2000: Coalition aircraft target four Iraqi military sites with precision-guided munitions -- including a military radar site at Nasiriyah, 17 miles southeast of Baghdad. Iraq says two killed in U.S.-British air raid in the south.
-- Feb. 16, 2001: U.S. and British warplanes bomb sites around Baghdad on Friday, hitting targets U.S. officials said posed threat to air patrols. Twenty-four attack planes involved, much more than in recent missions over northern and southern Iraq. *****
***** February 16, 2001
Iraq Strikes Reinforce U.S. Policy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:35 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just four weeks into office, President Bush found himself ordering military action against Saddam Hussein. While he insisted he was just reinforcing a decision by ground commanders, it showed he would act decisively against the old nemesis of his father, his vice president and his secretary of state.
The attacks by U.S. and British warplanes on military targets in the suburbs of Baghdad came while Bush was in Mexico, overshadowing his first presidential international trip.
Bush and other administration officials stressed that the action did not represent an escalation against Iraq -- but a continuation of existing U.S. policy. American and British warplanes have been patrolling ``no-fly'' zones in Iraq since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
But there was clearly a political message as well, even if it had not been planned before Thursday, when Bush issued the order.
``President Bush has signaled that he is not interested in simply maintaining an appearance of containment,'' said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
Charles Duelfer, who was deputy of the former U.N. weapons inspection agency, said in an interview that the Iraqis ``may very well have been testing the new administration.''
``There have been reports of a more active air defense. If the Iraqis were testing the new administration, they got a message that the United States was going to be vigorous in defending its aircraft and enforcing the no-fly zones,'' Duelfer said. ``They got a good message.''
Even as he called his decision routine, Bush also issued a declaration clearly intended for Saddam: ``We will continue to enforce the no-fly zone until the world is told otherwise.''
Friday's airstrikes came as the new Bush administration struggled to decide where to go next in dealing with Saddam.
The no-fly zones have never been popular with U.S. allies other than Britain. And there is lessening support within the United Nations, and especially among Iraq's neighbors, for maintaining tough economic sanctions.
The action came a week before Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the war that drove Saddam's occupation forces from Kuwait, was to begin a 5-day visit to the region -- including a stop in Kuwait.
Some analysts have raised the question of whether Powell's upcoming visit might have been a factor in the decision to move now -- instead of later.
``We need to keep ahead of them. Better to be safe than sorry,'' said Judith Kipper, a Mideast scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The airstrikes could bring new urgency to Powell's visit.
The secretary of state has signaled he favors modifying the sanctions against Iraq to ease their impact on civilians while leaving in place an arms embargo and U.N. control of Iraq's oil revenues.
Other Bush advisers favor a more aggressive stance, including more support for resistance groups seeking to topple Saddam.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary during the Persian Gulf War, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are generally viewed as more hawkish than Powell on dealing with Iraq.
Whether this amounts to a rift among Bush's top foreign policy and national security advisers remains uncertain at this early stage in Bush's presidency.
Bush called the airstrikes a ``routine mission'' and the Pentagon described it as self-defense.
But it was his first military decision as commander in chief. And it was the first strike against targets outside the southern no-fly zone since December 1998, when U.S. and British planes staged a four-day air campaign against Iraq after the withdrawal of U.N. weapons inspectors.
The episode was the latest installment in ``the ongoing cat and mouse game that Saddam plays, regardless of who's in the White House,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution.
Saddam has a history of testing U.S. presidents, O'Hanlon noted.
Bush himself held out the possibility that Saddam ``would provoke, test'' his new administration. ``And we'll be ready for it,'' he said in an interview last month.
Bush on Friday reinforced that pledge with action.
``The United States is engaged in the Middle East in the Persian Gulf. We will remain so,'' he said.
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EDITOR'S NOTE -- Tom Raum covers national and international affairs for The Associated Press. *****