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HT This Day: January 14, 1993 -- US planes hit Iraqi targets

ByAgencies
Jan 13, 2025 03:43 PM IST

They said the strike appeared to be limited in nature and just to warn Saddam Hussein that the allies were serious in their resolve to make Iraq comply with the ceasefire terms

Manama, Bahrain: US-led allies tonight began air raids over Iraq bringing to a climax the tension building in the region following Baghdad’s defiance of the UN Security Council and its violations of Gulf war ceasefire terms, report agencies.

HT This Day: January 14, 1993 -- US planes hit Iraqi targets (HT)
HT This Day: January 14, 1993 -- US planes hit Iraqi targets (HT)

Western diplomats in the region said fighter planes from US aircraft carrier ‘Kitty Hawk”. already in the Gulf, were participating in the raids along with French Mirage and British Tornado warplanes which took off from bases in the region.

The BBC reported that the US fighter aircraft which had taken off from the “Kitty Hawk” had since returned to base.

They said the strike appeared to be limited in nature and just to warn Saddam Hussein that the allies were serious in their resolve to make Iraq comply with the ceasefire terms.

The air raids came after hardline rhetoric from both Iraq and US in the past few days following Iraqi incursions into Kuwait and its stationing missile batteries in air exclusion zones both in northern and southern Iraq.

A Washington report said US military aircraft began raiding targets in Iraq, the US central command announced at about 11.40 pm IST.

Western diplomats in the region said US fighter planes were taking off from US aircraft carrier “Kitty Hawk” and other bases in the region.

They said the strike appears to be on a limited scale and added that perhaps this is just a warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Reuter quoting NBC’s correspondent at the Pentagon, Fred Francis, said “They are very limited air strikes” and quoted one Bush Administration official as saying:

“It’s just a spanking for Saddam, not a real beating.”

Francis said the attack had been scheduled for Monday but had to be put off because of bad weather until around noon EST (10.30 pm IST) on Tuesday.

In London, the British Defence Ministry sources said Tornado warplanes were on their way to hit targets in Iraq.

In Paris, French military sources said an air attack on Iraq had started today. Allied bombers were being backed by French Mirage fighters, the sources said.

CNN said nearly 100 aircraft took part in the raids firing missiles in the southern no-fly zone.

NO REACTION

There has been no reaction from Baghdad so far on the allied air strike.

Just before central command confirmation, Pentagon officials said targets were selected this morning and the plan is for a massive show of US force targeting multiple military targets.

These targets include most of the offensive missile sites that were near the no-fly zone last week. Iraqi air bases and planes and other selected military targets. Pentagon would neither confirm nor deny that Baghdad itself would be raided.

President elect Bill Clinton had earlier declared that he would support Mr Bush in whatever action he deems fit against Iraq to enforce UN resolutions.

Earlier today, Mr Abdel Haber Mohsen, an advisor to Saddam Hussein, was quoted by a Baghdad daily as saying “Kuwait will return to Iraq despite the US and the Security Council”

Earlier, President George Bush decided to launch a military strike against Iraq, reports N. C. Menon. The decision came even as there were reports that Iraqis crossed into Kuwait for the fourth day today.

By late yesterday, several senior advisers to Mr Bush had begun to suggest that Mr Hussein had gone to the brink of a new conflict by continuing to move anti-aircraft missiles near the southern no-fly zone in Iraq and by staging raids on arms warehouses on the border inside Kuwait.

Baghdad, meanwhile, appeared determined to defy the United Nations yesterday when it crossed the border into Kuwait for the third day running to remove equipment from a former Iraqi naval base.

NO MORE WARNINGS

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Iraq would get no further warnings to halt such actions before possible military retaliation. He called the situation “a matter of extreme concern.”

The New York Times today quoted unidentified administration officials as saying that Baghdad could avoid punitive action with prompt compliance, but that was not expected, and plans for an airstrike were proceeding. “It is just a matter of when to pull the trigger,” a Pentagon official said.

A senior Bush Administration official said he could see “no situation” in which Mr Bush’s desire for a peaceful transition would tie his hands in Iraq.

FOURTH CROSSING

Meanwhile, Iraqi salvagers crossed into Kuwait for the fourth straight day today, adds AP.

Mr. Abdel Latif Kabbaj, a spokesman for UN observers in the demilitarised zone along the Iraq-Kuwait border, said the Iraqis, unarmed and wearing civilian clothes. “have come back.”

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