US incursions into 'no-fly zones' continue

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday January 01, 2003 00:42 by kev - sp

More bombs rain down in 'no-fly' zones, Anann says "no justification for war...yet". American and British warplanes flying multiple missions attacked Iraq "air defence facilities" after an Iraqi fighter jet penetrated the southern no-fly zone, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

American and British warplanes flying multiple missions attacked Iraq "air defence facilities" after an Iraqi fighter jet penetrated the southern no-fly zone, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

By the Pentagon's count, the bombing Monday brought to 78 (???) the number of days this year that strikes were launched by the US-UK coalition that for a decade has been patrolling two zones set up to limit operations of President Saddam Hussein's military. Hostilities in the zones have ebbed and flowed over the years, and the 2002 year-end total of 78 coalition strikes is much higher than the 43 of 2001, but nearly matches the 80 of 2000 (pinch of salt required here I think on all offical counts).

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 US Air Force planes flew from land bases. He declined to name them, but planes monitoring the northern zone 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.

Meanwhile, Iraq has protested a US airstrike that reportedly killed three Iraqis and wounded 16 others in the nation's south, calling it a material breach to Security Council resolutions. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri described the Dec. 26 airstrike as "a barbaric and terrorist act, with a direct participation of the rulers of Kuwait, and it represents a material breach to the Security Council resolutions."

Kofi Annan said on Tuesday that he did not yet see any justification for a military strike against Iraq now since Baghdad had not hampered U.N. weapons inspectors operating in the country.

He said: "Obviously they (inspectors) are carrying out their work and in the meantime Iraq is cooperating and they are able to do their work in an unimpeded manner. Therefore I don't see an argument for a military action now." (Does this mean that Kofi will support military action even if a so-called WMD is found? My guess would be yes.)