Exposed: Britain and America's merciless secret blitz on Iraq
By Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent,
THE INDEPENDENT (Feb 1999)
WITH little publicity - and amid virtual indifference
in western capitals - US and British aircraft have
staged well over 70 air strikes against Iraq over the past
five weeks, inflicting more damage than the pre-Christmas
Anglo-American bombardment. And pilots flying out of Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait have now received new rules of engagement
which allow them to open fire on Iraqi installations, even
if they are not directly threatened.
The air offensive has been carefully calibrated to avoid
criticism or public debate - but coincides with Washington's
renewed efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime. Iraqi
missile sites have been attacked without warning and radar
stations targeted solely because their presence - rather
than any offensive activity - was said to menace American
forces in the Gulf.
Just over two weeks ago, for example, US aircraft bombed a
Russian-made CSSC-3 "Seersucker" anti-ship missile battery
on the Fao peninsula which, according to a spokesman, "could
have [sic] threatened shipping in the Gulf." Military sources
say there was no evidence that missiles were about to be fired.
By attacking Iraq almost every day while issuing only routine
information about the targets, American and British officials
have also ensured that their "salami" bombardment has provoked
little or no interest in the press; newspapers now frequently
carry little more than a paragraph about air strikes which
would have captured front page headlines a year ago. Only when
US missiles have hit civilian areas has the mildest criticism
been heard. Even then, it has been muted because of fears that
condemnation would support Saddam Hussein's own propaganda.
In fact, the most notorious incident - when an American AGM-130
missile exploded in a Basra housing complex - turns out to have
been more bloody than the Iraqis themselves admitted at the
time. Although initial reports spoke of 11 civilians killed in
the 25 January attack, a total of 17 people died that day and
almost 100 were wounded.
A United Nations report, compiled by Hans von Sponeck,
the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in Baghdad, states
that two missiles hit civilian areas 16 miles apart,
the first in Basra - where a woman and five children
were among the dead - and the second in the village
of Abu Khasib, where five women and five children
were killed.
In other words, most of the victims were children. A
Pentagon spokesman admitted to the Basra attack,
responding to the casualties with the words: "I want
to repeat that we are not targeting civilians."
Saddam's own tactics - of provoking American forces
and threatening their Gulf allies - has provided the
US and British governments with reasons for its
virtually hidden war against Iraq this year.
Having declared the Anglo-American "no-fly" zones in
northern and southern Iraq invalid, his air defence
batteries have fired at US and British aircraft; his
warning to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait that they would
face retaliation if they continued to allow American
planes to use their air bases angered the Gulf states
at the very moment when they were voicing growing
concern about the attacks. An offer from Saddam of a
financial reward for Iraqi crews who shot down raiding
aircraft went unclaimed: his batteries are hopelessly
inferior to American and British technology.
The air offensive began at the New Year with five
American attacks in two weeks. On 11 January, US
aircraft attacked Iraqi missile sites from bases in
Turkey - an incident that coincided with an announcement
that the Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, was to
visit the Gulf. She was seeking Arab support for the
continuation of UN sanctions, which have claimed the
lives of tens of thousands of Iraqi children, and for
Washington's plans to topple Saddam.
Almost daily air raids continued to the end of January,
by which time British fighter-bombers were joining US
planes. On 31 January, for instance, eight British and
American jets were attacking "communications facilities"
in southern Iraq.
A statement from the Americans on 4 February that US and
British planes had by then destroyed 40 missile batteries
- adding that this alone constituted greater damage than
was caused to Iraq in the whole December air bombardment
- passed without comment. Neither Washington nor London
explained whether the attacks had UN backing - they did
not - and Tony Benn's warning that the raids were creating
a "culture of violence" went unheeded.
On 11 February, General Sir Michael Rose, a former UN force
commander in Bosnia, condemned the offensive in a speech at
the Royal United Services Institute."The continual TV images
of the West's high-technology systems causing death and
destruction to people in the Third World will not be tolerated
forever by civilised people," Sir Michael said.
But his remarks were largely ignored. Instead, US officials
continued their fruitless attempts to form a united Iraqi
opposition to President Saddam and to find Arab support for
their plans. Despite Iraq's threats against Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait, the Gulf states were hostile to all such American
plotting, fearing the break-up of Iraq into Kurdish, Sunni
and Shia Muslim states in the event of a government collapse
in Baghdad.
When President Saddam threatened to strike at the Gulf states
which permitted US planes to use their bases, Mrs Albright issued
another of her supposedly tough statements. Iraq would face
retaliation if he dared strike America's friends in the region, she
announced. But what retaliation? With Iraq suffering frequent
military punishment, what could Mrs Albright inflict worse than
the current air bombardment? The US, it seems, has committed the
same errors in the Gulf that Israel once committed in Lebanon.
Prior to 1982, Israeli threats of a mass invasion would cow
Lebanese and Palestinians alike. But once the invasion took
place - and once it was clear that Israeli troops could be
killed in large numbers - the threat of an Israeli military
offensive lost its power to create fear.
Similarly with the Americans. The Anglo-American attacks before
Christmas were designed to "teach Saddam Hussein a lesson" for
blocking arms inspections. But the inspectors never returned
to Iraq, their top man admitted collaborating with Israel and
the whole Unscom team is now virtually non-existent. The
bombings did not humble the ghastly Saddam; indeed, they
inspired him to dare the Americans into further military action.
To what purpose? Iraqi troops around Basra have been reinforced,
although some missile batteries have been withdrawn from northern
Iraq. In Baghdad, six more civilian deaths were announced - one
in an air raid near Najaf on 10 February and five more (with 22
wounded) in southern Iraq five days later. On 4 February, a US
official said that the "no-fly" zones had been "quiet in recent
days" - a statement that came only two days after US jets had
bombed the anti-ship missile base at Fao.
All of which proves that it is easier to start a war than to
end one. Perhaps this thought has occurred to the US strategists
pouring over their Serbian map co-ordinates in recent days -
as they turn their attention from the Beast of Baghdad to
the Beast of Belgrade.
Target timetable
- 11 JANUARY US jets attack "missile sites" in northern Iraq.
- 12 JANUARY US planes attack "radar sites" in northern Iraq.
- 13 JANUARY Americans announce attacks on "radar bases" in northern Iraq.
- 14 January US jets attack "air defence systems" in Iraq. A spokesman says an F-16 pilot fired a HARM missile after his plane was tracked by Iraqi radar and an F-15 dropped a precision-guided bomb on a surface-to-air missile site.
- 24 January US attacks "missile installations" in northern Iraq.
- 26 January American attacks in both northern and southern Iraq. Air bombardments around Basra kill 17 people, most of them children. The US, acknowledging that one of its missiles went off course, says it is "not targeting civilians".
- 28 January Americans attack "anti-aircraft batteries" in northern Iraq.
- 30 January US strikes at six "air defence sites" around Mosul.
- 31 January British and American aircraft attack "communications facilities" in southern Iraq. President Saddam Hussein offers cash rewards to Iraqis who manage to shoot down American or British planes.
- 2 February US planes from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the Gulf attack a Russian-made anti-ship missile battery on the Fao peninsula.
- 2 February Iraq claims Saudi pilots have joined the air bombardment.
- 4 February US Defence Secretary William Cohen says Iraq is withdrawing missile batteries.
- 10 February Iraq says one man killed in Najaf province when US planes attack air defences in the region and at Qar.
- 14 February Iraq warns Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of attack if they allow US and British warplanes to continue use of their air bases. Washington warns Iraq of "retaliation".
- 15 February Iraq says five people were killed and 22 wounded in air raids in southern Iraq.
