U.S., U.K. Use 100 Planes in Iraqi Air Defense Attack (Update4)
By Paul Tighe
London, Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and U.K. used about 100 aircraft during an attack yesterday on the main air defense installation in western Iraq, the British Broadcasting Corp. and the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper said.
Only 12 of the planes dropped bombs on the target, the Telegraph reported without citing anyone. Other aircraft, including fighters, refueling and radar planes, supported the attack, the BBC said, citing unidentified U.K. military officials.
The raid was the biggest single operation over Iraq in four years and may have been designed to destroy Iraqi air defenses to allow special forces to fly in by helicopter, the Telegraph said.
The U.S. and U.K. have enforced no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War. They were set up to protect the Kurdish minority in the north and the Shiite Muslim population in the south, both areas of opposition to President Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi government doesn't recognize the zones.
The raid was carried out in response to ``recent hostile acts,'' U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said in a statement yesterday. The warplanes fired ``precision-guided weapons at positions at a military airport about 240 miles (386 kilometers) west and slightly south of Baghdad,'' it said.
U.S. President George W. Bush will outline his case for action against Iraq at the United Nations General Assembly next week after consulting with world leaders. He is due to talk today with the leaders of Russia, China and France, permanent members of the UN Security Council along with the U.S. and the U.K.
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is due to meet Bush at Camp David tomorrow, said Britain would ``be there when the shooting starts'' to keep its special relationship with the U.S.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa set out on a tour of Europe and the U.S. today to lay out the case against a strike against Iraq. Yesterday he warned that a U.S. war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would ``open the gates of hell'' for the Middle East and said Arab states would not offer facilities for an attack. |
