Britain, U.S. Raid Targets in Iraq

In the heaviest strike against Iraq in almost six months, U.S. and British warplanes bombed three air defense installations south of Baghdad on Friday to punish President Saddam Hussein’s government for increasing efforts to shoot down allied aircraft, the Pentagon said.

About 20 warplanes took part in the raid, which Lt. Col. Steve Campbell, a Pentagon spokesman, said was “in response to recent Iraqi hostile acts.”

Campbell said the targets were a communications facility near Numaniyah, about 70 miles southeast of Baghdad, and a mobile early- warning radar installation and surface-to-air missile battery near Nasiriyah, about 170 miles southeast of the Iraqi capital.

The attack was the largest since February, when 24 allied warplanes targeted five air defense command-and-control sites around Baghdad. However, less extensive raids--usually in response to Iraqi antiaircraft activity--happen so routinely that they are often ignored by the Pentagon and the public.

“All of these targets were contributing to the effectiveness of the Iraqi air defense system,” Campbell said.

In recent months, Iraq has intensified its antiaircraft fire against allied planes patrolling the “no-fly” zones imposed on the country after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In one incident, Iraq fired a surface-to-air missile at a high-flying U-2 reconnaissance plane. No allied planes have been downed by the Iraqi fire.

The Iraqi government said the attacks were on civilian sites. A spokesman for the Iraqi air defense command was quoted by the Iraqi News Agency as saying that one Iraqi civilian was killed and 11 wounded in the bombing.

“Evil U.S. and British planes conducted a cowardly operation,” the spokesman said. “Our air defenses confronted them, and they left our airspace defeated.”

The White House said President Bush was informed of the planned attack Thursday night. A spokesman said the bombing was routine, although heavier than usual. Late Friday, the Pentagon said it had not yet assessed damage to the targets, which were located in the southern no-fly zone.

At Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, a spokesman said allied aircraft patrolling the northern no-fly zone drew Iraqi antiaircraft and missile fire Friday but did not strike back, the Associated Press reported. U.S. Air Force planes Tuesday bombed an air defense site in northern Iraq, north of the city of Mosul.

On Capitol Hill, two key Democrats endorsed Friday’s raid.

“For a number of years, it has been the policy of the United States to respond when our aircraft and air crews are threatened in their enforcement of the no-fly zones over Iraq,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee. “Based on what we know so far, it appears that today’s action was consistent with that policy.”

“This strike against Iraqi military installations was a measured response to protect our pilots and aircraft against increasingly provocative and aggressive Iraqi actions,” said Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo). “Unfortunately, Saddam Hussein is not going away, and neither can we.”

The Pentagon said the planes were launched from the aircraft carrier Enterprise in the Persian Gulf and from land bases, which officials would not identify, in the region. Navy F-14 and F/A-18 jets, Air Force F-16s and British Tornadoes participated in the attack, the Defense Department said.

Iraq claimed that the planes were from bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The use of bases in Arab countries--even those that opposed Iraq in the Gulf War--to attack Hussein’s regime has become increasingly controversial across the Arab world as memories of the war fade. The U.S. government seldom acknowledges using bases in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait for such missions.