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Not all U.S. planes found
their targets in Iraq strike
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, August 13, 2001
WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has been trying to determine damage
assessments from its weekend strike on Iraqi military installations.
U.S. officials said the damage estimates would take several days. They
refused to elaborate.
But Pentagon sources said reports from the U.S. Air Force indicated that
some of the warplanes in Friday's attack mission were unable to find their
targets, Middle East Newsline reported.
One of the U.S. pilots involved in the strike reported that he could not deliver his weapons against the Iraqi SA-3 radar station "because our target was covered in a plume of smoke and sand from preceding U.S. bomb blasts."
"We tried several reattacks to get our bombs off but unfortunately there was no wind to carry the smoke and sand away so that we could see our target," according to account which was obtained by World Tribune.com.
About 50 British U.S. warplanes struck three air-defense installations
in southern Iraq about 110 kilometers south of Baghdad. This included an air
defense control center that connects by fiber-optic cables an anti-aircraft
missile site and a long-range radar station.
The targets in the allied attack were located at Numanyiah and Nasiriya.
The warplanes involved in the attack included U.S. Navy F-18 Hornets and
F-14 Tomcats, U.S. Air Force F-16 and British Royal Air Force Tornados.
"We conduct the strikes to protect U.S. and coalition pilots and
aircraft monitoring the no-fly zones," U.S. Army Col. Rick Thomas, a
spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said.
A Pentagon source said all planes returned safely to base. It was the
first major U.S. attack on Iraq since February.
Iraq said one of its citizens was killed and 11 others were injured in
the allied attack.
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