10 August 2001

U.S., British Warplanes Hit Three Targets in Southern Iraq

By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Central Command says it is still assessing the aftermath of a major air strike August 10 against three targets at two southern Iraqi locations.

Army Lieutenant Colonel Steve Campbell, a Pentagon spokesman, said approximately 20 U.S. and British warplanes were involved in the air strikes against a communications center near An Numaniyah, about 70 miles southeast of Baghdad, and against a mobile early warning radar system and surface-to-air missile site near An Nasiriyah, about 170 miles southeast of Baghdad. The air mission was backed by 30 support aircraft, Campbell said August 10.

"All of these targets were contributing to the effectiveness of the Iraqi air defense system," Campbell said.

All were part of the Iraqi integrated air defense system and the air strikes came in direct response to Iraq's recent efforts to shoot down allied pilots, the Central Command said. All aircraft returned safely to base.

The air strikes were carried out at 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT) August 10 by U.S. Navy F-18 Hornets and F-14 Tomcats from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, and U.S. Air Force F-16 Falcons and British Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 aircraft from land bases, according to the Central Command announcement. The warplanes dropped precision-guided weapons during the air strikes, Campbell said.

Precision-guided weapons -- dubbed smart bombs -- are bombs or rockets guided to targets by either lasers or global positioning satellites (GPS), a procedure which vastly increases the chance of a bomb hitting its target.

Coalition aircraft have been flying patrols over northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991 to prevent Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from persecuting minority Shiite Muslims in the south and a Kurdish enclave in the north.

"We conduct the strikes to protect U.S. and coalition pilots and aircraft monitoring the no-fly zones," said Army Colonel Rick Thomas, a Central Command spokesman at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

On August 7, U.S. and British warplanes struck Iraqi air defense sites near the northern Iraq town of Mosul after a multiple rocket launcher battery fired three surface-to-air missiles at coalition planes patrolling the northern no-fly zone. Pentagon officials said the Iraqis fired a surface-to-air missile at a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane inside Kuwaiti airspace July 19, and another missile that almost struck a U.S. Air Force U-2 surveillance aircraft flying over southern Iraq July 24.

Pentagon officials have said that Iraq has improved its air defense system since coalition aircraft pounded its anti-aircraft network in February, and has stepped up efforts to shoot down U.S. and British warplanes policing the area.