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TITLE: US Warplanes Strike in Northern Iraq |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: AFP |
DATE: February 23, 2001 |
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US warplanes struck again Thursday, hitting air defense targets in northern Iraq, as President George W. Bush declared last week's air strike near Baghdad a success that sent a warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "We got his attention," said Bush at his first White House news conference. The president appeared unconcerned about disclosures that more than half the missiles fired at radars around Baghdad February 16 landed wide of the mark, raising questions about the raid's military effectiveness. "We had two missions," Bush said. "One was to send a clear signal to Saddam, and the other was to degrade the capacity of Saddam to injure our pilots. I believe we succeeded in both those missions." A Pentagon spokesman said the latest strike was launched against Iraqi forces that fired anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles at coalition aircraft patrolling a no-fly zone in the north. The aircraft also were targeted by Iraqi radar southeast of Mosul, an oil city in northern Iraq, the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany said. "Both triple-A (anti-aircraft artillery) and surface-to-air missiles were used today. Coalition aircraft were not hit," reard Admiral Craig Quigley, a senior Pentagon spokesman said. He said US warplanes "returned fire and engaged those anti-aircraft systems." A Pentagon official said the sites targeted were north of Mosul inside the northern no-fly zone, which is enforced by US and British warplanes based at Incirlik, Turkey. Last week's strike, by contrast, drew attention because it was the first in more than two years to hit sites around Baghdad outside the no-fly zones, and the biggest since Operation Desert Fox in December 1998. Two dozen US and British aircraft attacked radar and command and control nodes in a bid to disrupt the air defense system in southern Iraq, which in recent weeks has come closer and closer to hitting US and British air patrols. Pentagon officials have said the raid was precipitated in part by Chinese construction of a fiber optic network linking long distance surveillance radars around Baghdad to command centers that control anti-aircraft systems in the south. Bush said he was concerned about the Chinese presence and was sending Beijing a message. "Yes, it's troubling that they'd be involved in helping Iraq develop a system that will endanger our pilots," he said, speaking at his first White House press conference. China has denied assisting Iraq with its air defense system. UN Security Council resolutions in place since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait bar military aid to the Iraqi regime. Likening the sanctions regime to Swiss cheese, Bush said Secretary of State Colin Powell's upcoming talks in the region would be aimed at making sanctions work. "But the primary goal is to make it clear to Saddam that we expect him to be a peaceful neighbor in the region, and we expect him not to develop weapons of mass destruction. And if find him doing so, there will be a consequence," Bush warned. Powell is expected to have his work cut out for him as the airstrikes have been widely denounced in the Middle East, as well as by Russia, China and France. END |