General: US Would Hit Iraq With Arms Array
11:26 a.m. Feb 13, 1998 Eastern
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has developed a ''synchronized
plan'' to attack Iraq with an array of cruise missiles and bombs, but expects some
American or allied pilots would die in such raids, the Pentagon's top military officer
said Friday.
''We will lose some people, and that weighs heavily,'' Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. But he reiterated confidence that any
such strikes would degrade Baghdad's ability to produce chemical and biological
weapons despite intelligence shortfalls.
While refusing to give details of prospective targets in any attack, Shelton said that
air-launched cruise missiles, ship-fired Tomahawk cruise missiles, stealth jets and
laser-guided bombing would be used.
''We have cruise missiles and TLAMs that will go in against appropriate targets,''
he said, suggesting that radar-avoiding F-117A stealth bombers would soften up air
defenses before other attack planes made bombing runs.
''All of this is part of a synchronized plan,'' Shelton told reporters. He added that
enough targets could be hit to damage Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's ability to
produce weapons of mass destruction and to threaten his neighbors.
But he conceded that the United States did not have solid knowledge of where all
of Iraq's biological and chemical weapons are hidden because satellites and spy
planes ''don't look through buildings.''
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