DATE=8/13/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ/RAID (L)
NUMBER=2-265409
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: U-S and British warplanes have again bombed
targets in southern Iraq. The Iraqi News Agency says
the second night of attacks hit a train station,
wounding an unspecified number of civilians. A
spokesman for the U-S military says the planes
targeted Iraqi military installations, as we hear from
Correspondent Scott Bobb in our Middle East Bureau in
Cairo.
TEXT: The Iraqi News Agency says the latest attack
occurred late Saturday on the city of Samawah - 270-
kilometers south of Baghdad. A statement called the
attack criminal, and said it proved the hatred of the
American administration and its British ally for the
Iraqi people.
The official news agency said an attack late Friday
hit residences and a warehouse in Samawah, killing two
civilians and wounding 19 others. A regional
television station (Qatar's Jazeera) broadcast footage
showing two injured men in an Iraqi hospital and
scenes of people cleaning up debris in what appeared
to be a bombed-out house and an office building.
A spokesman for the U-S military in Washington
confirmed the attacks, but said they were against
Iraqi air defense installations that had targeted
allied planes in the southern no-fly zone.
The spokesman said allied forces try to avoid injury
to civilians or damage to civilian facilities.
The Iraqi News Agency reports President Saddam Hussein
met with the government's ruling councils to discuss
the raids, which the agency said destroy Iraqi
property with American backing and support from Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait.
In recent weeks Iraq has increasingly criticized the
air strikes and the two neighbors that allow U-S and
British planes to operate from bases in their
territories. The Iraqi government has also sent a
letter to the United Nations complaining about the
attacks.
Allied warplanes have been patrolling no-fly zones in
northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf
war in an effort to protect dissident populations in
these regions. Iraq rejects the patrols as a
violation of its sovereignty.
/// REST OPT ///
The latest wave of criticism began on the 10th
anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that
launched the Gulf war and brought crippling
international sanctions against Iraq.
Observers in the region say it appears to be part of a
renewed Iraqi effort to raise pressure to end the
sanctions, and the allied flights over Iraq, prior to
the opening of the U-N General Assembly next month.
(SIGNED)
NEB/SB/ALW/RAE
13-Aug-2000 09:54 AM EDT (13-Aug-2000 1354 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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