The United States has suspended most cruise missile
attacks against Iraq because they were threatening U.S. allies.
U.S. officials said seven Tomahawk missiles, with a range of 1,600
kilometers, have gone off-course over the last week. Four of them landed in
Saudi Arabia and the remainder in Turkey.
As a result, officials said, the Defense Department agreed to halt the
launches of such cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the
Red Sea. They said they hope to repair the mishaps in the Tomahawk and
resume attacks.
U.S. officials said Riyad had complained that U.S. Tomahawk cruise
missile strikes from the Red Sea were landing in the kingdom. They said the
Saudi protests led to a decision to reduce cruise missile attacks.
"In the case of Saudi Arabia, we did have a number of T-LAM [Tomahawk]
missiles that were reported down in their territory," Maj. Gen. Victor
Renuart, the coalition's director of operations, said.
The Tomahawks were said to have failed after the launch phase, the
general said. The missiles, which contain a 1,000-pound warhead, fell into
northwestern Saudi Arabia without exploding. The warhead is not meant to
activate until the missile approaches its target.
"The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has lodged an official protest with the
United States about the fact that the missiles fell on its territory," a
Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman was quoted by the official Saudi Press
Agency as saying. "The missiles fell in desolate areas and did not cause any
damage."
Renuart said U.S. Central Command is investigating mishaps in the
Tomahawk navigation system. He said cruise missile attacks from the
Red and Mediterranean seas would resume at an unspecified date.
"We continue to use Tomahawk cruise missiles throughout the theater,"
Renuart said. "We have coordinated with the Saudis to hold on a couple of
routes that might put them in a position where they could be close to any
civilian population."
Officials reported a significant drop in Tomahawk missile strikes since
Wednesday. They said the U.S. military has fired more than 675
Tomahawk missiles since the start of war.
"We actually have had less than a one percent failure rate, a number of
Tomahawks that we've launched, not make it to their targets," Maj. Gen.
Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations at the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said. "So it's been very, very high in terms of success."
