OPENING STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEFENCE, MR GEORGE ROBERTSON, MOD PRESS CONFERENCE, LONDON, SATURDAY, 19 DECEMBER 1998
MR ROBERTSON:
Last night was another successful night of missions in operation 'Desert Fox'. RAF Tornado planes have again played a significant part. Attacks last night were prosecuted successfully with precision weapons against key military installations and I am glad to say that all of our planes have returned safely.
Targets that were attacked by the RAF aircraft last night included Republican Guard headquarters which are the lynchpin of Saddam's regime. The Republican Guard are Saddam's force for internal repression, they keep him in power. It was the Republican Guard which was the spearhead for the invasion of Kuwait in 1991 but most importantly, the Republican Guard also play a central role in concealing, protecting and controlling Saddam's chemical and biological weapons programme so damaging the Republican Guard means damaging Saddam's capacity to threaten his neighbours and to use chemical and biological weapons. Because the Republican Guard is central to Saddam's security, it is a key target for us. If the Republican Guard ceases to support Saddam his brutal regime is under immediate threat. We want the Republican Guard to know that the cosy life that they have led under Saddam is under attack and we think they have got that message very clearly.
Last night, we also struck at key elements of Saddam's air defence system and at tank facilities. Air defence is a key element of Saddam Hussein's war machine and his tank force is a substantial element of his ability to conduct offensive military operations against his neighbours. Other coalition targets overnight have included command-and-control facilities which allow Saddam to use his chemical and biological weapons. So far in this campaign coalition aircraft have flown several hundred manned-aircraft sorties including over 100 bombing raids, some 300 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired and around 100 air-launched cruise missiles have been used.
Coalition forces have attacked about 100 separate, precise military targets; some of these sites are very large military complexes which have required a significant number of attacks, others are single buildings which house key facilities. Around a third of these sites are related to Saddam's chemical and biological weapons, another third of the targets were part of Iraq's air defence system, either missile sites or command facilities; 20 targets are related to the overall control of Saddam's military machine and the balance are Republican Guard or other military sites such as airfields. We are still assessing the full impact of the damage we have inflicted and we hope to have a better picture later in the day. However, it is already clear that we have inflicted substantial damage on Saddam's chemical and biological war machine and set back his ambitions to threaten his neighbours.
I want to say a little more to you today about the anthrax air force which I reported on yesterday. In 1990, Saddam ordered the production of unmanned aircraft to spray chemical and biological agents on civilians and ground troops that he might wish to attack. Early efforts to convert combat aircraft were not successful but spraying equipment was successfully tested using an anthrax-like substance. In 1995, Saddam launched a new programme using a converted training aircraft code-named L29. The first flights were started in 1997 and the testing programme is still continuing. This aircraft has been fitted with two under-wing weapon stores capable of carrying 300 litres of anthrax or other nerve agents. If this were to be sprayed over a built-up area such as Kuwait City, it could kill millions of people.
Once perfected, we suspect that Saddam had intended to deploy these drones of death in Southern Iraq as a direct threat to his neighbours and it was this development programme that we hit on Thursday night. It is precisely to deny Saddam Hussein the use of these terrible weapons that we have launched our strikes. However painful the decision to go ahead with this action, I believe it must be absolutely right that to destroy these terrible weapons is better than allowing Saddam to continue to perfect and deploy them.
This is a precise, limited operation to blunt Saddam Hussein's ability to build or use chemical and biological weapons and to damage his ability to threaten his neighbouring countries and bitter experience has shown that there is no other way to curb his ambition. We will stop as soon as we judge that these objectives have been achieved. Saddam must be clear that we will stay the course, we will not go away.
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