World Tribune.com


Bush orders 'zero-tolerance' for Iraqi attacks after UN vote

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, May 24, 2002

WASHINGTON Ñ President George Bush has ordered the military to respond forcefully to any Iraqi attack on American and British warplanes that patrol the no-fly zones, U.S. officials said. They said the aim is to eliminate or reduce Baghdad's improved air defense network.

Officials said the Bush administration restrained the military in April and much of May to allow for the passage of a new sanctions regime on Baghdad. The so-called smart sanctions are meant to tighten controls on military and dual-use items while allowing Iraq to quickly import humanitarian goods.

The administration had been quietly concerned over Iraq's buildup of radar and anti-aircraft facilities in northern and southern Iraq, Middle East Newsline reported. Officials said the buildup began in March and included improved systems meant to quickly detect and respond to allied intrusion into Iraqi air space.

"The idea is that we move toward zero-tolerance of Iraqi aggression," an official said. "If Iraq attacks our planes or anything else of ours, we hit back twice as hard."

Britain and the United States have been enforcing the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq for more than five years.

Over the last week, U.S. warplanes have destroyed two Iraqi radar facilities in southern Iraq, officials said. The last such attack was on Thursday, when U.S. F-16 aircraft dropped precision-guided bombs on an Iraqi anti-aircraft battery and command and control installation near the Kuwaiti border.

In both cases, officials said, the U.S. warplanes responded after they were fired upon by Iraqi anti-aircraft missiles. The U.S. planes returned safely to base.

"Aggression by Iraq led to the destruction of two military targets by the coalition forces charged with enforcing the southern no-fly zone," U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

Central Command identified the two sites as an anti-aircraft missile battery near Nasiriyah, about 300 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, and a military aircraft and missile control center near Tallil, 300 kilometers south-southeast of the capital. An Iraqi military spokesman said two Iraqi nationals were killed in the allied attack.

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