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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (56253)	11/8/2002 2:58:46 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

The No-Fly Zones Areas Were Designated to Protect Minorities From Iraqi Attacks Feb. 16 [2001] — The Iraqi communications points attacked by U.S. and British planes were north of the southern "no-fly zone," a territory patrolled since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. The no-fly zones, which Baghdad does not recognize, were imposed after the war to protect Kurdish communities in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi government forces. The targets bombed today were outside the no-fly zones, but the Pentagon said the warplanes were out to destroy radar systems that had been threatening British and U.S. operations in the area. The rules of what and when to bomb were expanded in 1998, when President Clinton gave U.S. pilots clearance to attack any part of Iraq's air defense system they felt could be a threat. Previously, they were permitted to attack only those sites that had directly targeted them. Under the rules imposed in 1998, for example, a pilot whose aircraft is locked onto by one Iraqi radar site can fire at any radar or missile site in the area he believes could pose a threat. The Air Force says there have been more than 700 separate incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed against U.N. coalition aircraft since December 1998. Iraqi planes have flown over the southern no-fly zone more than 150 times during the same period, according to the Air Force. The northern "no-fly-zone" is located at 36 degrees latitude and was established April 7, 1991, six weeks after the end of the Gulf War. The southern "no-fly-zone" was established at 32 degrees latitude Aug. 27, 1992. NATO extended this zone to 33 degrees latitude, when France and other NATO countries stopped patrolling these zones. abcnews.go.com