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| Axis of Evil |
| U.S-U.K Coalition Warplanes Bomb Iraq |
| 2002-12-31 |
| More details on yesterdays strike American and British warplanes flying multiple missions attacked Iraq air defense facilities after an Iraqi fighter jet penetrated the southern no-fly zone, the U.S. military said Tuesday. The warplanes used precision bombs and a damage assessment was under way, said a statement from the command. The coalition aircraft targeted the sites after Iraqi forces flew a MIG-25 some 110 nautical miles into the southern zone. Well, Sammy's got at least one MiG-25 that works. At 2:30 p.m. EDT Monday, coalition aircraft struck cable repeaters that are part of Iraq's air defense communications system running between Al Kut and Al Basrah and between Al Kut and An Nasiriyah; and at 3:40 p.m. they targeted a mobile radar unit that Iraqis also had moved into the zone, near Al Kut, Mitchell said. An Nasiriyah is some 300 miles south of Baghdad and Al Basrah some 200 miles south. Al Kut is about 160 miles southeast of the capital. Mitchell declined to say how many planes participated in the missions or how many bombs were dropped. A Pentagon official said Navy aircraft flew from the USS Constellation and British and U.S. Air Force planes flew from land bases. He declined to name them, but planes monitoring the northern zone that protects Iraq's Kurdish minority fly out of Incirlik air base in Turkey and those in the south have routinely flown from Kuwait, though officials said recently that Saudi Arabian officials have been allowing U.S. warplanes to fly strike missions from there as well. The question is, do the Saudis know about this? Penetrations by Iraqi jets into the zone are less frequent but not uncommon. A week ago, an Iraqi MIG-25 shot down a U.S. Predator drone conducting reconnaissance near Al Kut, U.S. military officials said. Might be the same plane However, Iraqi state-run television appeared to say that ground-based air defenses shot it down. I'd tend to believe our intel over their media |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 Al Kut again, only this time it sounds like a major C3 cable nexus. Target lock, weapons free... |
| Posted by: mojo 2002-12-31 11:42:57 |