Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
May 13, 2000
RELEASE NUMBER: 00-05-02
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COALITION AIRCRAFT STRIKE IRAQI AAA SITES IN THE SOUTH
MACDILL AFB, FL - - At approximately 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, U.S. Air Force F-16 "Fighting Falcons,"
U.S Navy F-14 "Tomcats" and U.S. Navy F/A-18 "Hornets" enforcing the Southern No-Fly Zone used precision-guided
weapons to strike anti-aircraft artillery sites in southern Iraq.
All coalition aircraft have returned safely and battle damage assessment is ongoing. The coalition strikes came in response
to anti-aircraft artillery fire against coalition aircraft yesterday.
During the past week, there have been several instances of anti-aircraft artillery fire against coalition aircraft; to date, there
have been more than 470 separate incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed against
coalition pilots since December 1998. Iraqi aircraft violated the Southern No-Fly Zone more than 150 times during the same
period.
The sites were targeted to further degrade Iraq's ability to jeopardize coalition pilots and aircraft enforcing United Nations'
mandates. The last coalition strike in Southern Iraq was against Iraqi military radar sites near Al Amarah, An Nasiriyah, As
Samawah and Tallil on May 2.
Coalition aircraft do not target civilian populations or infrastructure and seek to avoid injury to civilians and damage to
civilian facilities.
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5/13/00 3:22:54 PM
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