- WASHINGTON (UPI) -- U.S.
and British jets bombed two Iraqi air defense and command facilities near
Al Kut Thursday, the fifth time that area has been fired on since September
by aircraft enforcing the southern no-fly zone, U.S. Central Command announced.
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- Al Kut is about 95 miles southeast of Baghdad. The jets
fired precision-guided weapons at an air defense operations facility and
integrated operations center at around 1:20 p.m. after Iraq engaged in
unspecified "hostile acts" toward the aircraft.
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- Coalition aircraft struck two surface-to-air missile
sites in Al Kut Wednesday, marking the first time F/A-18E Super Hornets
have seen combat. The strike-fighters flew from the USS Abraham Lincoln.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld directed his commanders
this year to target not just the tactical weapons sites threatening aircraft
in Iraq but the higher-value command facilities that provide targeting
coordinates.
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- Since Sept 16, when Iraq President Saddam Hussein said
he would allow U.N. arms inspectors access to his country to search for
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, Iraq has fired on U.S. and British
aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones more than 125 times, predominantly
in the southern no-fly zone.
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- The no-fly zones were created shortly after the Persian
Gulf War by an agreement among the United States, Britain and France to
protect Kurdish minorities in the north and Shiites in the south, in keeping
with U.N. resolutions that called on Saddam not to target the groups.
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- No-fly zone enforcement went relatively unchallenged
for nearly seven years until 1998, when Iraq blocked U.N. arms inspectors
from carrying out unfettered inspections. The inspectors were withdrawn
and the United States and Britain launched a 4-day retaliatory attack on
Baghdad known as Operation Desert Fox. Following that campaign, Saddam
directed his gunners to fire on coalition aircraft and offered a reward
for any U.S. pilot or plane shot down.
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- Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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