U.S./British Warplanes Hit Iraqi Military Sites

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2001 - American and British warplanes
attacked Iraqi military command, control and communication
sites outside Baghdad today, defense officials said. No
allied aircraft were lost.

Land- and sea-based planes launched "long-range, precision-
guided, stand-off weapons" against five Iraqi radar and
command, control and communications nodes, said DoD
spokesman Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley at a Feb. 16
Pentagon news briefing.

U.S. Central Command officials requested the attack and it
was approved by President George W. Bush. Twenty-four
American and British planes struck the targets located from
five to 20 miles from Baghdad. A number of other allied
aircraft supported the strike.

Bush, in Mexico in meetings with President Vicente Fox when
the strike occurred, said: "Saddam Hussein has got to
understand that we expect him to conform to the agreement
that he signed after Desert Storm. We will enforce the no-
fly zone, both south and north.

"Our intention is to make sure that the world is as
peaceful as possible and 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."

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, director of
operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the purpose
of the mission was to "degrade and disrupt" the Iraqi air
defense infrastructure. Over the past two months, he added,
the Iraqis have become more accurate in radar-targeting
American and British planes patrolling the Southern No-Fly
Zone.

"The attack was made in defense and response" to an
increased Iraqi threat against American and British
aviators, Newbold said. No coalition planes, he added,
crossed the 33rd Parallel, the northern border of Operation
Southern Watch. An assessment of damage caused by the
strike is underway, he said.

Coalition aviators have flown patrols over northern and
southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War to prevent
Saddam Hussein from threatening his neighbors, DoD
officials noted.