30 December 1998
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT REPORT, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1998
(Iraq) (300) PENTAGON SAYS US EXCHANGED FIRE OVER SOUTHERN NO-FLY ZONE TODAY A Pentagon spokesman said US fighter jets fired missiles and laser-guided bombs on an Iraqi missile site early December 30 after a British aircraft observed something fired from the site near Talil in southern Iraqi. A spokesman said the British bomber reported the activity at about 9:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. EST). "Something was fired. We're not sure what was fired." Two US F-16 fighter jets patrolling the area responded and fired two HARM missiles and a number of precision-guided bombs onto the site at 10:15 a.m. (2:15 a.m. EST), that Pentagon spokesman said. The aircraft safely departed the area about a half hour later. Meanwhile, Major Joe LaMarca, a spokesman for US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, told wire services by telephone that US and British aircraft were conducting a routine patrol at about 1:30 a.m. EST when the Iraqis fired six to eight surface-to-air missiles at them from a site southwest of Talil in southern Iraq. "In response to that unprovoked attack, we responded by firing two HARM missiles and we dropped a number of ...precision-guided munitions at approximately 2:15 a.m. Eastern Time," LaMarca said from Tampa. "There were no coalition casualties," he said. "The battle damage is ongoing (to the Iraqis)." US and British aircraft had returned to their bases in southwest Asia, he added. It was the second clash this week between US and Iraqi forces in the no-fly zones. LaMarca said patrols were continuing in both the southern and northern Iraqi no-fly zones on December 30.
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