U.S. Jets Hit Radar Site in South Iraq

For the third time in less than a week, U.S. fighter jets attacked a military target in southern Iraq that the Pentagon says posed a threat to allied pilots patrolling Iraqi airspace.

Four Air Force F-16 fighter jets Thursday attacked a long-range radar stationed at the Basra airport, Pentagon officials said. They said the radar was not active at the time of the attack but had been used to coordinate Iraqi air defense targeting of U.S. and British aircraft in southern Iraq.

The radar was considered a significant target because it had sufficient range to “see” all of Kuwait’s airspace, according to a senior defense official.

In a brief statement, the U.S. Central Command said only that “coalition” aircraft used precision-guided weapons to strike the radar at 1:30 p.m. EDT and that the damage was being assessed. It also said the attack was “in response to recent Iraqi hostile threats.”

Last Saturday, U.S. and British warplanes attacked a mobile radar in southern Iraq, and on Tuesday they hit an Iraqi aircraft command and control facility.

In Baghdad, an unidentified spokesman for Iraq’s Transport Ministry was quoted Friday by Al Iraq newspaper as saying the Basra attack led to the “complete destruction of the radar.” The spokesman accused the attacking warplanes of committing a “crime against our civil installations.”