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Thursday, May 2, 2002

All coalition aircraft landed safely.

Wednesday's strike continues a pattern that Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talked about 10 days ago: The Iraqi military has moved more surface-to-air missiles into the northern and southern parts of the country and is using them to target aircraft enforcing the two no-fly zones.

After nearly three months of quiet, this is at least the fourth time U.S. planes were targeted over Iraq since mid-April. Iraq fired on at least three U.S. aircraft in five days: twice from surface-to-air missile sites in Mosul in the northern zone on April 19, and once from near Talil in the southern zone on April 15. The fighter planes responded with air strikes.

The last time U.S. forces were targeted or fired on in northern Iraq was February. In southern Iraq the last time was January.

The United States has been enforcing the no-fly zones over Iraq for a decade with the assistance of Turkey and Britain. The United States interpreted two U.N. resolutions calling for the protection of Kurdish and Shiite minorities as allowing the creation of no-fly zones.

Iraq rarely challenged U.S. aircraft enforcing the exclusion zones until December 1998, when the United States led a four-day assault on Baghdad in retaliation for Iraq's refusal to allow unfettered arms investigations by U.N. teams.

After that attack, known as Operation Desert Fox, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein offered rewards for any U.S. aircraft shot down and pilots killed or captured.

Iraq's quest to shoot down a manned aircraft has been futile despite more than 1,000 attempts over the past 3-1/2 years, U.S. Central Command said. Iraq has shot down at least three unmanned Predator reconnaissance aircraft.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Middle East

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

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