HEADQUARTERS,
UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 828-5894; FAX: (813) 840-5629; DSN 968-5894
September 27, 1999
RELEASE NUMBER: 99-09-05
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COALITION AIRCRAFT REACT TO IRAQI PROVOCATIONS
MACDILL AFB, FL - - At approximately 12:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time today, U.S. Air Force F-16 "Falcons," U.S. Navy F/A-18 "Hornets" and F-14 "Tomcats," and British Royal Air Force GR-1 "Tornadoes" enforcing the Southern No-Fly Zone used precision guided munitions to strike Iraqi military communications sites near the cities of Al Amarah and Al Kut and a radar site in the vicinity of Tallil.
All coalition aircraft have returned safely and battle damage assessment is ongoing.
The strikes were in response to numerous incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed at coalition aircraft yesterday. Also yesterday, two Iraqi fighter aircraft violated the Southern No-Fly Zone.
These hostile acts represent the latest of nearly 400 provocations by Iraqi military forces in the no-fly zones, including over 140 No-Fly Zone violations and nearly 250 separate incidents involving Iraqi surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artillery and target tracking radar illuminations against coalition aircraft since Operation Desert Fox.
Each of these communications and radar sites was targeted to further degrade Iraq's ability to jeopardize coalition pilots and aircraft enforcing the United Nations mandates.
Coalition aircraft do not target civilian populations or infrastructure and seek to avoid injury to civilians and damage to civilian facilities. Iraqi citizens, especially the Kurds in the North and Shia in the South, who were subjected to systematic Iraqi ground and air attacks before the No-Fly and No-Drive Zones were set up by the United Nations and coalition nations, are the forgotten beneficiaries of coalition operations in southern Iraq. The No-Fly and No-Drive Zones were also designed to protect Iraq's neighbors and commercial shipping in the Arabian Gulf from Iraqi aggression.
U.S. and coalition aircraft are part of Operation Southern Watch and are responsible for enforcing No-Fly Zones over southern Iraq and United Nations Security Council mandated maritime sanctions. Our actions today are an appropriate response to the continued pattern of Iraqi provocations.
9/28/99 11:27:00 AM
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