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To: Broken_Clock who wrote (24420)	12/16/1998 6:28:00 PM
From: Gord Bolton	Respond to of 116791

Showdown with Saddam: Home Tuesday, March 10, 1998 Blasts light the night over Baghdad after U.S. airstrikes By WAIEL FALEH -- The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Anti-aircraft guns opened fire in Baghdad early Thursday, and U.S. and British officials announced they had launched a series of airstrikes. No attacking planes or missiles were immediately seen over the Iraqi capital. The Iraqi blasts created loud explosions, violently shaking the glass windows of the Information Ministry building near the center of Baghdad where foreign reporters are based. Orange glows streaked toward the sky as the anti-aircraft guns let loose volley after volley of shots. The explosions begin about 12:49 a.m. Thursday (4:49 p.m. EST Wednesday). A barrage of blasts lighted the sky several hours after the Clinton administration warned that it would make a military strike against Iraq at any time. President Clinton ordered airstrikes on Iraq over a protracted impasse with Iraq over U.N. weapons inspections just minutes before the blasts began. Less than an hour later, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the British had participated in the airstrikes. Earlier in the day, long lines formed outside Baghdad gas stations and customers cursed Clinton for planning an attack before the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which is expected to begin Sunday. "It seems that Clinton ... wants to kill some people in a hurry out of respect for Ramadan," said Amin Jadir, 52, a government worker. The crisis unfolded quickly after chief inspector Richard Butler ordered his monitors out of the country, accusing Iraq of obstructing their search for weapons of mass destruction. In Washington, Clinton met with his top national security advisers before ordering the attack, and the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York on the crisis. Blair blamed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for precipitating the impasse: "This action could have been avoided. ... Our quarrel is with him alone and the evil regime which he represents." In Baghdad, a special joint meeting of the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council and the ruling Baath Party issued a statement, saying Iraqis can "depend on God to knock the dreams out of ... (the) empty heads" of the United States and Britain, which has backed the U.S. line on Iraq. Baghdad residents heard distant explosions, but it was not clear what caused them. The initial anti-aircraft explosions were heard, following by a second round of anti-aircraft bursts a short while later that lasted about 30 seconds. There was no word from government officials also on the firing. Few people were out at the time of the explosions and and few cars were on the streets of the capital. Air raid sirens sounded briefly in Baghdad shortly before midnight local time. Earlier, Iraqi television interrupted regular programming to play patriotic music and footage of Iraqi commandos training with machine guns, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Any strike would come from the Persian Gulf, where the United States has 24,100 military men and women. There also are 22 warships, including eight with Tomahawk cruise missiles, and 201 aircraft, including 72 on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. Britain has 22 strike aircraft in the region. Earlier Wednesday, three trucks loaded with luggage left the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. About a half-hour later, three busloads of weapons inspectors also left the U.N. compound, followed by four white U.N. cars carrying spare tires on top. Most of the 140 inspectors, who work for the U.N. Special Commission, or UNSCOM, flew aboard a special U.N. plane from an airbase outside Baghdad to the gulf state of Bahrain. "All international staff ... have been pulled out from Baghdad," UNSCOM spokeswoman Caroline Cross said in Bahrain. "There is nobody left behind." The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is monitoring Iraq's compliance on dismantling its nuclear program, also withdrew its staff from Baghdad. UNSCOM is responsible for eliminating Iraq's chemical and biological weapons. Until these weapons are destroyed, the United Nations will lift economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Persian Gulf war. Iraq says it has complied with every U.N. demand, and accuses Butler of prolonging the inspections at the behest of the United States. On Tuesday, Butler gave a report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in which he said Iraq's claim to be free of banned weapons "cannot be accepted without further verification." But verification is impossible as Iraq is obstructing the inspectors, he said. TOP NEWS: Clinton bombs Baghdad CANADA: Regan sex trial to go to jury WORLD: Embassy bombings fugitive list grows NEWSWORTHY: Shuttle astronauts return to Earth Copyright © 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership. All rights reserved. Please click here for full copyright terms and restrictions.