09:00CST - 21 Feb 2001 Series of EmergencyNet News "Real-Time" Reports Concerning U.S./British AirStrikes on Iraqi Command, Control, and Communications Sites: 16-21 Feb 2001
INSTANT
09:00CST - 21 Feb 2001
IRAQ:
Pentagon Says Iraq Resumes Firing On Allied Jets
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that despite last week's joint US/UK air strikes designed to damage Iraqi air defenses, Saddam's military resumed firing at allied warplanes over the southern part of the country over the weekend. The Iraqis reportedly fired missiles and air-defense guns at U.S. and British warplanes patrolling a "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq on Saturday and Sunday but the jets did not return the fire. All planes returned safely to their bases.
A senior U.S. defense official said that Friday's joint U.S. and British air strikes were timed to avoid injuring Chinese workers who were helping install new underground fiber-optic cables to improve Iraq's air defense. The official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed published reports that Chinese military and civilian workers were helping bolster Iraq's military with Chinese fiber-optics in violation of United Nations sanctions.
Washington is sensitive to potential Chinese casualties after the 1999 U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia. The United States said that was an accident, but the bombing -- which killed three Chinese -- badly damaged U.S.-China ties for nearly a year. The Washington Post first reported that the raids were launched on Friday because it was a Muslin holy day and thus a low number of Iraqis and Chinese were likely to be working on the underground cable system.
The Wall Street Journal, quoting a senior Pentagon official, reported on Tuesday that the Chinese military help was a clear violation of U.N. sanctions against contracts aiding Iraq's military following the 1991 Gulf War.
19 Feb 2001 - From: http://www.emergency.com/ennday.htm
IRAQ:
Saddam Threatens To Strike Back At Saudi, Kuwait For Helping US
As demonstrators cried "Death to America" on Baghdad streets, Iraq's ruling Baath party on Monday threatened military retaliation against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait if they keep providing bases for US and British air strikes. A Baath party newspaper said: "Doesn't Iraq have the right to adopt military measures against aggressors and those who grant them facilities if the aggression is renewed?"
Referring to US and British warplanes, the paper said that the Iraqi leadership is determined "to face up to the aggression and step up the means of resistance so as to turn the skies over Baghdad into a hell for the crows of aggression." The Ath-Thawra newspaper said the Saudi and Kuwaiti leaderships should be "ashamed to put forward pretexts" for the US and British strikes around Baghdad on Friday that Iraq alleged left three dead and 30 wounded.
17 Feb 2001 - From: http://www.emergency.com/ennday.htm
THE IRAQI RESPONSE:
Saddam Threatens Retaliation Against Western Attacks
Old foe Saddam Hussein vowed retaliation against the United States and United Kingdom on Saturday for attacks near Baghdad he said had killed two civilians. U.S. ally Israel expressed understanding for the first major raid on Iraq authorized by the new POTUS, saying the country that invaded and occupied Kuwait in 1990-91 posed a new threat as it was rebuilding its military strength.
Analysts in the United States said the raid showed the U.S. President would get tough with Iraq and that the military component would be prominent in a new policy toward Saddam. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said: "There is a reason for concern about Saddam Hussein, not just on our part. The threat is carrying on and intensifying."
Baghdad's official press reacted furiously to the first Western air strike in the vicinity of the Iraqi capital since December 1998. The official Qadissiya newspaper said in a front-page editorial: "The Americans' and Britons' new, savage crime will not pass unpunished and without decisive retaliation. We will teach the new American administration and the Zionist entity (Israel) lessons on Jihad (holy war) and steadfastness."
Iraqi television broadcast an official statement saying planes had struck targets near Baghdad. The statement was issued after a meeting of Iraqi leaders chaired by Saddam. The statement said: "We will fight them in the air, on land and sea and their aggression will achieve nothing but failure." The statement also blamed Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for providing bases for coalition forces in the region.
ERRI analysts said that the most likely method of immediate retaliation by Iraq is through the use of terrorism. ERRI's Sr. National Security analyst, Clark Staten said in an interview this morning, "Mr. Hussein learned once the hard way that he can't engage the U.S. or Britain in a conventional military campaign...his only viable option would appear to be to engage in unconventional warfare using Scud missiles or something similar and/or terrorist attacks." "Our most current assessment would suggest that there is an increased likelihood that he will sponsor terrorist acts...probably through a cell of operatives put together just for the event...in that way he can maintain some degree of public deniability, while privately taking credit for revenge and his attack on 'the great Satan'," Staten added.
Analyst Says West Was "Provoked" Into Bombings
According to London-based Middle East expert Hazhir Teimourian, the joint bombing raids by US/UK aircraft in Iraq were a show of strength against Saddam Hussein after months of provocation. Teimourian said that he believed the strikes were carried out because the Iraqi leader had been trying to "test" the new Bush administration in Washington.
He said: "It is clear to us who watch the Middle East that Saddam Hussein has been pushing the limits and wants to test the new administration in the US to see if it has a softer policy toward him." Teimourian said the controversial moves Saddam had been making included concentrating his troops near the Kurdish enclave in the north.
Teimourian said: "If his troops go into Kurdistan there will be another huge refugee crisis like in April 1991, with one or two million people in those cold mountains of Turkey needing to be fed by the British and the Americans." He also said that in a recent military parade through Baghdad, Saddam had used trucks that the United Nations had allowed him to buy for humanitarian purposes to carry missiles.
The analyst added: "There are many reasons I believe Washington and London decided to send him a strong signal. It is more political than for real. They just wanted him to know they will not stand for any more provocations by him."
ERRI SPECIAL REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Friday, February 16, 2001-19:56CST
IRAQ/UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM:
POTUS TO SADDAM: "THERE'S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN"
In what the Pentagon called a "self-defense measure," U.S. and British warplanes on Friday bombed air defenses near Baghdad in the sharpest blow against Iraq in more than two years. The Pentagon said the strike targeted sites that were tracking and threatening the aircraft that patrol the southern no-fly zone.
A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Marine Lt-General Greg Newbold, said: "The military operation was conducted because the Iraqi air defenses had been increasing both their frequency and the sophistication of their operation. It reached the point where it was obvious to our forces that they had to conduct an operation to safeguard those pilots and the aircraft" patrolling the no-fly zone. Newbold called the attacks "essentially a self-defense measure."
The operation involved 24 attack aircraft and several additional support planes, some of which jammed Iraqi radar. It began at 1120 EST, with the planes reaching target by 12:20EST and clearing Iraqi air space by 13:40EST. Newbold said the attacking planes encountered surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft fire during the mission. All returned safely.
The aircraft hit five targets comprising 20 radar sites as well as command and control centers. Four of the targets were north of the 33rd parallel -- the northern border of the southern Iraqi no-fly zone -- and one was south of the parallel. This was the first time in more than two years that American planes struck targets north of the no-fly zone. But since long-range, precision-guided missiles were used, no aircraft were ever north of the 33rd parallel.
Iraqi television said one person was killed and scores of others were wounded. U.S. officials are not sure if any weapons went astray. Newbold said that the targets hit were "selected for the specific separation that they represented from non-military targets," but the primary purpose was to reduce the threat to coalition jets. Newbold added: "The range of these radar reached deep into the Operation Southern Watch area and that was the reason that they posed such a threat." He also said that the Pentagon had grown concerned about the threat over the past two months.
Some of the targets were just five miles south of Baghdad and anti-aircraft fire could be heard from the city. Air raids sirens wailed there for the first time since U.S. air strikes in February, 1999. Because the targets were close to his capital, Saddam Hussein apparently believed they would be safe from attack.
The Iraqi leader chaired a security meeting after the strikes. A statement issued after the meeting said the attack was proof that the United States and "the Zionist entity," Iraq's term for Israel, are "partners in evil and aggression."
The strike was the first direct military action ordered by POTUS, and analysts said it was meant to send a message. ERRI risk analyst Steve Macko said: "There has been much expectation that since a new U.S. President has been sworn in that Saddam may soon test him. Well, it looks like Bush got the pre-emptive strike in that sends a very clear message to Saddam... 'There's a new sheriff in town,' don't mess with us." While the military periodically bombs Iraq without seeking a specific presidential go-ahead, the approval of POTUS was sought for Friday's raids because they involved targets outside the southern no-fly zone.
The U.S. President said on Friday that the United States would take "appropriate action" if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein produced weapons of mass destruction. He said while on a trip in Mexico: "We're going to watch very carefully as to whether or not he develops weapons of mass destruction and if we catch him doing so we'll take the appropriate action."
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INSTANT
- 15:00CST - 16 Feb 2001
U.S. and British Aircraft Hit Iraqi Command and Control Sites; "To Degrade Iraqi Capability"
Washington, DC/Pentagon (EmergencyNet News) -- Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this afternoon said that 24 U.S. and British strike aircraft had attacked five (5) Iraqi command and control nodes today. Gen. Newbold said that the attacks were carried out to diminish the "frequency and sophistication of Iraqi air defense capabilities," which have been increasing in recent weeks.
Newbold said that the attacks were undertaken using "stand-off" weapons that were fired from south of the 33rd parallel and that the strike aircraft did not actually approach Baghdad. Newbold confirmed that the air operations began at about 11:20EST and lasted about twenty minutes. No U.S. or British aircraft were reported damaged in the attacks.
U.S. President George W. Bush, in a news conference during his visit to Mexico, called the air-strikes "a routine response to enforce the no-fly-zones." Pres. Bush also said that today's actions were just part of a continuing policy concerning Iraq, that has been in place since 1991.
EmergencyNet News continues to monitor events in Iraq and will provide additional details as the circumstances warrant...
*****
13:15CST - 16 Feb 2001
U.S. Military Forces Attack Command, Control, Communications (C3) Facilities South of Baghdad
Washington, DC (EmergencyNet News) -- Military sources are verifying that strikes were carried out by U.S. and British warplanes today on Iraqi command and control sites. The attacks are reportedly made in response to more aggressive tactics by Iraqi forces in the so-called "no-fly zone." Details are to be forthcoming during a Pentagon briefing later this afternoon (see below)...
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12:30CST - 16 Feb 2001
Explosions and Air Raid Sirens Reported in Baghdad
Baghdad, Iraq
(EmergencyNet News) --
Little factual information is so far available about a report of air raid
sirens, anti-aircraft fire, and explosions in or near Baghdad, Iraq. The
incident has reportedly happened within the past hour.
Unconfirmed reports are also coming in to EmergencyNet News that "allied aircraft" may have been attacking air defense coordination sites south of Baghdad. Officials at the Pentagon, for security reasons, could not immediately verify any such strikes or the location of any allied aircraft in the region.
EmergencyNet News continues to monitor events in Iraq and will provide additional details as the circumstances warrant...
© EmergencyNet News Service, 2001. All rights reserved. May not
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News.
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