US and British warplanes have repeatedly pounded targets in Iraq with precision-guided weapons in recent weeks, ostensibly in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire in the so-called no-fly zones created in the north and south of the country.
The latest bombs fell September 5 on an air defense command and control center located at an airfield approximately 240 miles southwest of Baghdad, the Pentagon’s Central Command reported.
With the Bush administration noisily pressing its case for a “preemptive” invasion of Iraq, the US military has quietly escalated its low-intensity air war against the ravaged Arab nation. Of the 35 bombing raids conducted so far this year, 10 of them took place in August, eight of these in southern Iraq.
According to Iraqi estimates, US and British warplanes have flown a total of 42,000 sorties over Iraqi territory since 1998, flying out of bases in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Several hundred civilians have been killed in bombing raids that Washington and London describe as acts of “self defense.” Over 1,000 have been wounded.
The latest bombs fell September 5 on an air defense command and control center located at an airfield approximately 240 miles southwest of Baghdad, the Pentagon’s Central Command reported.
With the Bush administration noisily pressing its case for a “preemptive” invasion of Iraq, the US military has quietly escalated its low-intensity air war against the ravaged Arab nation. Of the 35 bombing raids conducted so far this year, 10 of them took place in August, eight of these in southern Iraq.
According to Iraqi estimates, US and British warplanes have flown a total of 42,000 sorties over Iraqi territory since 1998, flying out of bases in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Several hundred civilians have been killed in bombing raids that Washington and London describe as acts of “self defense.” Over 1,000 have been wounded.