U.S. planes attack Iraqi radar sites

WASHINGTON -- President Bush ordered an airstrike Friday on Iraqi military sites south of Baghdad to destroy five military command sites that threatened American and British aircraft. \n White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the action was "a routine strike" to enforce the no-fly zone in Iraq and protect U.S. personnel. Bush authorized the strike Thursday morning. British and U.S. planes took part in the attack. \n Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold said the strike involved 24 aircraft that targeted Iraqi command sites that control radar that had increased their frequency and sophistication and threatened U.S. jets patrolling Iraqi air space. \n "It reached the point that it was obvious to our forces that they had to conduct the operation to safeguards those pilots and the aircraft. In fact (it was) essentially a self-defense measure," he said. \n The Pentagon said it took about 2 1/2 hours for the operation, the first ordered by Bush since taking office. \n All U.S. and British planes involved in the attack returned safely, the official said. \n The strike was the first against targets outside the southern no-fly zone since December 1998, when U.S. and British planes staged a four-day air campaign against Iraq. \n The strike, coming less than a month after Bush took office, did not appear to mark a departure from U.S. policy toward Iraq. The Clinton administration said any military target in Iraq that threatened allied planes enforcing "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq were fair game. \n However, the new Bush administration released millions of dollars to Iraqi opposition groups to work inside the country to destabilize President Saddam Hussein's hold on power. Those opposition leaders were meeting Friday with State Department official when the attack occurred. \n However, the new Bush administration released millions of dollars to Iraqi opposition groups to work inside the country to destabilize President Saddam Hussein's hold on power. \n The new Bush administration includes several key players from the Gulf War, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell. \n The strike, coming less than a month after President Bush took office, did not appear to mark a departure from U.S. policy toward Iraq. The Clinton administration said any military target in Iraq that threatened allied planes enforcing "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq were fair game. \n Iraq has said that some 300 people have been killed and more than 800 injured since it began challenging the no-fly patrols in December 1998. \n Some of the Iraqi radars hit Friday were located north of the 33rd Parallel, which marks the outer limit of the "no-fly" zone that U.S. and British planes have been enforcing over southern Iraq since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. \n The official said the allied aircraft did not fly outside the no-fly zone. They used "standoff" weapons to reach their targets, he said. These are capable of zeroing in on targets from a distance after being launched from an aircraft, making it safer for the pilot. \n Air-raid sirens wailed through Baghdad Friday night and explosions were heard as anti-aircraft weapons fired into the sky. \n Witnesses saw nothing unusual over the Iraqi capital, but the city was tense. The explosions from anti-aircraft weaponry from the southern and western outskirts of the city began soon afterward. \n State-run TV aired its regular newscast. Another station, al-Shabab TV, began playing patriotic songs and showing footage of commando training and marching. \n The Pentagon official said the raid was carried out between 12:30 and 1 p.m. EST.\n The allied planes flew from "various locations in the Persian Gulf," he said. Among the planes that regularly participate in enforcing the no-fly zone are Navy planes aboard the USS Harry S Truman.\n The radars and associated command-and-control facilities that were attacked Friday had been used in recent weeks to give Iraq a better capability of targeting allied planes with its surface-to-air missiles, the official said. \n "We felt it gave an increased vulnerability to our forces operation over the south" of Iraq, the official said. \n Allied planes have been attacking Iraqi air defenses inside the northern and southern "no-fly" zones periodically for years. \n Iraq said Sunday that U.S. and British warplanes injured seven people and destroyed 17 houses in airstrikes in the southern part of the country. \n Bombs hit civilian buildings and military installations in the provinces of Basra and Maisan, an unidentified military spokesman said in comments carried by the official Iraqi News Agency. He said the houses were destroyed in Basra, 340 miles south of Baghdad. \n Iraq last month said U.S.-British warplanes killed six of its citizens in strikes on southern Iraq and that its air defense units hit one of the planes. \n The U.S. military denied any aircraft was hit, saying all planes returned safely after a raid conducted in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire. \n The official Iraqi News Agency said allied aircraft attacked civilian targets in two districts in the southern province of al-Muthana, 220 miles south of Baghdad. \n The allied aircraft were fired on while patrolling the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, which was established after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Shiite Muslim rebels from Iraqi government forces.\n Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zone and has been challenging allied aircraft since 1998.