LONDON Ñ Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries have fired 10 times over the last two days on
coalition planes patrolling the no-fly zone in northern Iraq.
"This is a significant number," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "We know they have pretty good capability
actually."
At the same time, Iraq has deployed a new mobile anti-aircraft
battery using a new mobile launcher.
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Iraq's new surface-to-air mobile launcher.
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The British Defence Ministry released photographs of the new mobile
launcher in operation in southern Iraq. The photographs show missiles
deployed on a rotating launcher, transported on a truck.
The surface-to-air launcher has been deployed in southern Iraq and used
against British and U.S. aircraft. The launcher is said to have improved the
capablility of a 1970s-era Soviet system.
The London-based Jane's Intelligence Review identified the photographs
as the Soviet-origin S-125 Neva. The magazine said the S-125, known in NATO
as the SA-3, was obtained by Iraq in the 1970s. The system contained
stationary launchers.
Jane's said the Iraqi ability to convert the S-125 into a mobile system
has increased the danger to allied warplanes. U.S. and British fighter-jets
have been monitoring the no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq amid
increasing missile firings by the Iraqi air defense command.
So far, Iraq has not shot down any U.S. warplanes. But on May 26 Baghdad
announced they downed an unmanned air vehicle, believed to have been the
Predator system.
On Wednesday, U.S. and British warplanes dropped precision-guided
munitions on elements of an Iraqi integrated air defense system.
