DoD News Briefing
Monday, May 3, 1999 - 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA
Q: Can we ask you about the other war, the forgotten war in Iraq? I understand there have been some incidents over the weekend and today, and I understand today that Iraqi forces fired missiles from a civilian area.
Is this a new tactic that they're going to try to prevent the United States and the coalition partners from attacking air defense sites in the north?
Mr. Bacon: Well, they did fire at one of our planes, or they threatened one of our planes from a civilian area. We fired back with a HARM missile, anti-radiation missile, in self-defense. After the missile was fired, we saw that the installation against which it was fired was in a civilian area.
They've been doing this for some time. We have very clear intelligence photos of military equipment parked next to mosques and other civilian buildings. This isn't new. They may be doing more of it. But I can't discern a pattern at this stage. They've been doing this, as I say, for some time off and on.
Q: Didn't Operation NORTHERN WATCH -- did they say that missiles were actually fired at the U.S. planes?
Mr. Bacon: They said they were targeted by radar and fired upon by [an] Iraqi surface-to-air missile.
Q: Were the surface-to-air missile launchers in that civilian area or was that...
Mr. Bacon: I don't know exactly what was there. It was the radar, I believe, that they found in the civilian area, not the missile launcher, but the radar.
Q: (inaudible)
Mr. Bacon: The U.S. missiles were fired at the radar, which had been put in a civilian area.
Q: Did it hit anything other than the radar itself?
Mr. Bacon: I don't think we know at this stage what it hit, but the attack was called off after they saw that the radar was in a civilian area.
Q: Is there any concern that the Iraqis are stepping up these challenges and attacks, seeing that you're occupied elsewhere?
Mr. Bacon: There's no concern that they're stepping up their challenges, because the challenges seem to be episodic, and they go through periods of intensity. We can't explain why there are long down periods with no challenges followed by periods of more rigorous intensity. The reason could be that he's constantly looking for ways to shoot down a U.S. plane, and therefore recalibrating his air defense and other systems better to enable him to do that. That's just speculation.
But the pattern appears to be that he challenges for awhile, we whack him day after day in response to his challenges, then he pulls back and sort of goes down for a period and does nothing. Then he comes back up and presents a new series of challenges. Sometimes slightly different tactics.
One of his tactics now may be to place his air defense systems in civilian neighborhoods thinking that he can challenge us with impunity because he's done that. I think it's not only a risky strategy for him, but for his civilians.
Q: You're not saying that these things that are in civilian neighborhoods are off limits to...
Mr. Bacon: This was not off limits. Obviously, our planes will continue to defend themselves if they're under attack.
................ Q: Can I ask a question about Iraq, just following up there? Why did the statement issued by Operation NORTHERN WATCH, EUCOM, [say] that that site in a civilian area was not bombed? In fact it was attacked, but what's the point of saying it wasn't bombed?Mr. Bacon: It says here that they responded by firing missiles in the first paragraph. In the second paragraph, it says they didn't use bombs.
Q: What's the distinction there?
Mr. Bacon: I'm not sure there is a distinction. There's a distinction -- I mean there clearly is some level of distinction between missiles and bombs, but I explained to you what happened. They were targeted; they were illuminated; they fired a HARM and also an AGM-130 (sic) [no AGM-130 was fired at this site], and then they pulled off the attack, and they didn't come in with other bombs after that.
Q: The implication is that they did the immediate reaction to a SAM launching, which is launch an AGM -- I'm sorry, a HARM -- and possibly other things, but then when it came to do a followup strike on a location you now knew was a SAM, when they looked at it and saw that it was a civilian area, they didn't do it.
Mr. Bacon: What they knew was that there was a radar installation there. That's what they, obviously with the HARM, what they were shooting at, because it follows the radar beam.
Q: They did attack it, right?
Mr. Bacon: Yes, they did. And it says they attacked it with missiles.
Q: Would you say this release misrepresents what happened?
Mr. Bacon: I don't think so. I think the release says that they attacked, that they were threatened, and they responded with missiles. In the second paragraph it says they didn't drop bombs. I assume that reflects the truth here. There is a distinction between missiles and bombs.
Major General Wald: Actually, it's overly accurate.
Q:...didn't drop bombs. They didn't do other things as well. But in the context in which that's written it appears to suggest that they did not attack that site in the civilian area.
Mr. Bacon: Let me just read what it says here, okay?
It says that "aircraft were targeted by Iraq radar and fired upon by Iraqi surface-to-air missiles. Responding in self-defense, U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16CJ Falcons fired AGM-88" -- which is the HARM - "and the AGM-130 missiles at surface-to-air missile sites north of Mosul." Then they went on to say that in addition, F-16C Falcons dropped BGU-12 laser-guided bombs on one of the surface-to-air missile sites.
In the second paragraph it says that when they discovered that -- two Iraqi surface-to-air missiles were launched against coalition aircraft from a site located in a civilian town. It says they did not target this site with bombs. That's what it says.
Q: Was a HARM or were HARMs fired at that site...
Mr. Bacon: Yes, a HARM missile was fired at that site.
Q: The delineation that is, this site was struck, but it was not struck with bombs. It was struck with HARM missiles.
Mr. Bacon: I have to say that this is dancing on the head of a pin.
Q: Well...
Mr. Bacon: This release says in the first paragraph that missiles were fired in self-defense...
Q:...and if we're now supposed to differentiate between a site being struck with bombs and missiles and we need to ask these questions separately, then that should be clear.
Mr. Bacon: If you guys want to bloviate about this release, you can do it all you want, but the fact is it admits that we fired missiles; it says we did not drop bombs in one respect, and I think there's nothing more to say about this than we've talked about...
Q:...appear to you when you read this release, was it clear to you that this other site was struck with HARM missiles, because it said it wasn't struck with bombs?
Mr. Bacon: I think that there's one thing you have to know about this release and one thing you have to know about the incident -- that Iraqi air defense systems targeted our planes and we responded in self defense. That's the story.
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