- WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Navy
warplanes tasked with patrolling a no-flight zone in southern Iraq are
also practicing bombing runs against Iraqi targets.
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- The New York Times reported Sunday that navy pilots are
conducting mock strikes against airfields, towers and other military sites
in Iraq, familiarizing themselves with targets they may be called on to
strike as the United States prepares for possible military action to oust
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
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- "It gives us the opportunity to train in the same
environment that we may possibly go to war in," Captain Kevin C Albright,
who commands the air wing of the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, based
in the Persian Gulf, told the newspaper.
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- "We are looking at target sets and practicing,"
he said.
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- The no-flight zones in southern and northern Iraq were
established after the 1991 Persian Gulf war to prevent Iraq from carrying
out airstrikes against Shiites in southern Iraq and Kurdish forces in the
north of the country.
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- The zones have been patrolled by the US Air Force and
Navy and by British forces.
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- Since then the allied patrols have grown into a sort
of low-grade war, with Iraq firing at allied patrols more than 130 times
since mid-September, according to Pentagon officials.
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- In response, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has
given US warplanes the authority to attack a broader array of targets,
Pentagon officials told the Times.
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- Instead of focusing on mobile anti-aircraft systems,
which Iraq can hide, the Pentagon has authorized the military to attack
an expanded set of command and control centers, communications relay stations,
military radars and other stationary targets, the newspaper wrote.
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- The advantage of the Lincoln aircraft carrier, said the
New York Times, is that it represents four and a half acres of sovereign
US territory.
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- This means political considerations by Persian Gulf nations
do not affect the US Navy's ability to conduct bombing missions.
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- That is not the case for land-based allied patrols, which
have been limited by political constraints, the paper said.
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- US and British planes based in Kuwait are authorized
to bomb targets in Iraq, it noted. But many planes that help monitor the
no-flight zone are based in Saudi Arabia, which does not allow them to
be used in actual bombing missions.
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- The Lincoln is the only US aircraft carrier in the Persian
Gulf, but more are expected to arrive, according to the daily.
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