WASHINGTON Ñ Iraq's improved air defenses are in the crosshairs of U.S. warplanes.
On Wednesday, U.S. fighter-jets attacked an Iraqi air defense facility
in southern Iraq near the Kuwaiti border, Middle East Newsline reported. It was the second time this week
that allied warplanes targeted an Iraqi communications facility.
The officials said Iraq has managed to integrate and improve its
air defense systems with help from China and republics of the former Soviet
Union. The missile batteries are linked by fiber-optics in a project led by
China.
U.S. officials said the Defense Department has ordered the military to
step up monitoring of Iraq's air defense facilities and destroy missile
batteries and command and control stations that threaten U.S. and British
warplanes.
The officials said Iraq has focused on bolstering its air defense
network along its border with Kuwait. They said this reflects an Iraqi
assessment that any military campaign against the regime of Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein would come from the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. campaign is said to have focused on destroying or damaging
military-capable repeater stations. These stations are linked through
fiber-optics cables
and have increased Iraq's ability to detect and target U.S. aircraft
throughout southern and central Iraq.
"I will tell you that over the last recent years, they've worked hard to
improve their integrated air defense systems," Air Force Brig. Gen. John
Rosa, deputy director for current operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
told a briefing on Wednesday. "And we've worked hard to make sure that they
don't improve them. Without getting into too much detail, those [repeater
stations] are parts of an integrated air defense system that we feel need to
be taken out."
Rosa said the current level of Iraqi firing of anti-aircraft missiles
toward U.S. combat jets in southern Iraq is about the same level as that
prior to the Sept. 11 Islamic suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
The Al Qaida attacks resulted in a lull in Iraqi anti-aircraft activity.
U.S. warplanes have attacked Iraqi installations 14 times in southern
Iraq since the beginning of 2002, officials said. In northern Iraq, U.S.
fighter-jets have struck Iraqi air defense assets eight times.
Officials said the United States has not caused permanent damage to
Iraq's air defense system. They said Iraq, with help from foreign crews,
have been able to quickly rebuild damaged surface-to-air batteries and
command and control systems.
"We know in some instances when we've taken something out, they have
managed to rebuild it," Assistant Defense Secretary Victoria Clarke said.
