Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993 TAG: 9301220155
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
U.S. JETS STRIKE IRAQI RADAR SITE
A cease-fire between Iraq and Western military forces was interrupted briefly Thursday when two U.S. fighter aircraft attacked an Iraqi anti-aircraft battery after its radar tracked the planes on a routine afternoon patrol in northern Iraq, according to U.S. officials.The first U.S.-Iraqi military clash under President Clinton was not specifically cleared in advance by the new administration but followed routine procedures allowing U.S. military aircraft to defend themselves when threatened, Pentagon officials said.
The "rules of engagement" for U.S. warplanes were set by the Bush administration and maintained after Clinton took office Wednesday.
"We're going to stay with our policy [toward Iraq]. It is the American policy and that's what we're going to stay with," Clinton told reporters Thursday.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry denounced the U.S. attack as "aggressive and provocative," saying the radar had not been "locked on any plane" since Iraq declared a cease-fire Jan. 20 and adding that Iraq remained committed to the cease-fire.
U.S. officials in Washington and Western diplomats in Baghdad predicted Iraqi forces probably would comply with the cease-fire for at least several weeks. When they announced the halt to military sparring, Iraqi officials said it was meant as a goodwill gesture to encourage the Clinton administration to reappraise Western constraints on Iraqi flights and a 29-month-old U.N. embargo of international trade with Iraq.
The incident occurred about 1 p.m. Baghdad time (5 a.m. EST), several hours after a plane carrying U.N. arms inspectors landed at Habbaniyah Airport outside the Iraqi capital, the first such flight permitted to enter in more than two weeks.
Earlier this month, Iraq had tried to ban the U.N. flights, then said the planes could land but disavowed responsibility for their safety unless they entered Iraq from Jordan. Following a U.S. missile attack on an Iraqi military-industrial complex outside the capital on Sunday, Iraq again agreed that such flights could be conducted without interference.
"We have tested [Iraq's clearance for U.N. flights] and it worked well," Rolf Ekeus, chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, said in New York Thursday. U.N. officials said five more U.N. flights to Iraq are planned this week.