Posted by Lilly from ? (160.129.27.22) on Friday, September 06, 2002 at 12:01PM :
Click the link below to read the full article... if you want to get sick like I did. There are some interesting propaganda "polls" & video links.
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U.S., UK launch major Iraq airstrikes
100 U.S. and British planes reportedly target military facility, but both sides keep mum
PIC: An F14 fighter jet and pilot prepare for flight Friday on the deck of the USS George Washington, which supports the 'no-fly' zone over southern Iraq.
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
Sept. 6 — British media reported Friday that 100 British and American planes have launched the biggest air attack on Iraq in four years, possibly foreshadowing the early stages of a future U.S. invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. President Bush, meanwhile, used telephone diplomacy Friday to try to persuade three skeptical nations — China, Russia and France — that action against Baghdad is urgently needed.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S front page report said Thursday's air strike on Iraq appeared to be "a prelude to the type of special forces operation that would have to begin weeks before a possible American-led war."
It said 100 U.S. and British warplanes had taken part in the raid Thursday on an Iraqi command and control center in what it said was a first strike in western Iraq and the largest in four years. The British Broadcasting Corp. aired a similar report.
The British Ministry of Defense declined to comment on numbers, but said the raid was part of the normal enforcement of the southern "no fly" zone, one of two zones policed by Britain and the United States since the 1991 Gulf War.
Although it was the second such strike in six days, a spokeswoman said there was no sign of an increase in the tempo either of allied operations or Iraqi activity on the ground.
However, sources interviewed by the British media said the size and location of the strike were significant — in areas where the Iraqis could position Scud missiles capable of hitting Israel as retaliation for a U.S. invasion.
NO CONFIRMATION
Neither the Pentagon nor U.S. Central Command in Florida would give any more information beyond a confirmation issued on Thursday that U.S. jets had launched precision-guided weapons against a command-and-control post at a military airfield 240 miles west of Baghdad.
"We never release that kind of detail," a spokesman said.
The strike was the 35th this year by American and British jets patrolling no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq.
-- Lilly
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