.6 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 4, 1996
CRISIS IN THE GULF
r EA CTION
tnued from Page £
"The Pentagon has been wrong
efore. There could be a lot more peo-
le killed than we are being told.
Where you have (military) bases there
ave to be people living there who
ork there;" said Amer Zahar, an LSA
enior and officer of the Arab
American Student Association.
The students said that Iraqi citizens
ill suffer as they have in the past as a
esult of the economical embargo
gainst that country.
"Since the sanctions began, the con-
itions there have been very inhumane
d it looks like it can only get worse,"
bbasi said.
University political science Prof.
ach Levey said it is Saddam Hussein
ho has allowed his people to suffer.
"(The citizens) are going to pay.
ey continue to pay for Saddam's
dventures," Levey said.
Students pointed out an inconsisten-
y between the United States' reaction
o Hussein's crimes and responses to
uman rights violations in other,
gions such as Bosnia and Lebanon.
"They've found a nice target in
addam Hussein," Zahar said.
Levey said Saddam's violations are
ot only a matter of his vendetta
jgainst Kurds.
"A lot has to do with controlling nat-
ral resources in those areas, such as
ii. It bothers him that year after year
is subject to these restrictions,"
_evey said.
Students said Clinton's actions prob-
bly had a lot to do with the upcoming
lection.
"This is an election boost for
linton. It's become political, but we
re talking about people's lives," Zahar
aid.
Levey said the timing may have been
more a factor for Saddam.
"He may have thought it was a good
time to test the U.S. I think an
American president at any time would
have to respond," Levey said.
Many said the United States is
wrong to involve itself in the conflicts
of Iraq, a country students say is not a
large military threat.
"It's not the U.S.'s business to go into
another country's affairs," LSA senior
Sami Abbasi said.
Levey said the attack on Iraq was a
reasonable sanction against Saddam.
"You can call it a legal sanction. You
can also call it a moral sanction," Levey
said. The U.S. action is meant to "curb
(Hussein's) desire to assert himself in
the Persian Gulf and the Middle East in
general," he said.
U.S. bombs targets
in southern Iraq
A
AP PHOTO
A group of demonstrators from the socialist Workers Party bum an American flag In front of the U.S.
consulate in Istanbul yesterday.
U.S. military bombs Iraqi targets.
President Clinton ordered attacks on Traqi targets in the
southern section of the mideast country early yesterday.
B-52H Bombers, stationed in Guam, were sent to drop a
barrage of bombs, and Tomahawk missiles were deployed
from offshore locations in the Persian Gulf, in total hitting
27 times.
Late last night, U.S. Military forces fired an additional 17
missiles. --
ATTACK
Continued from Page 1
will be no way" that Saddam could attack either
Jordan or Kuwait. "It is to ensure that we can rule
the skies over Iraq," he said.
A defiant Hussein vowed yesterday to respond
to U.S. missile strikes, ordering his troops to shoot
down foreign aircraft and ignore the no-fly zones
designed to keep his military in check.
Kurdish rebels in the north celebrated the
attacks ordered by President Clinton, but said
Saddam's forces were still pressing their offensive
against them.
The United States launched two missile attacks
against Saddam's air defense system in southern
Iraq, unleashing the second round today to pick off
targets missed in the first assault yesterday.
Three warships and a submarine in the Persian
Gulf fired 17 cruise missiles in the second attack,
Pentagon sources said. There was no immediate
word on damage.
Air raid sirens sounded in the capital for a sec-
ond day this morning, going off at 5:30 a.m. and
wailing through the dawn.
The first attack - by two American warships
and a pair of B-52 bombers - fired 27 cruise mis-
siles, killing five people, according to Iraqi and
U.S. officials.
The first attack prompted Saddam to announce
he would no longer honor the two no-fly zones that
bar his warplanes from the skies of northern and
southern Iraq.
"From now on, pay no attention to damned
imaginary no-fly zones," Saddam told his armed
forces. "Depend only on God, and hit hard and
professionally at any flying target that belongs to
the allied aggressors that penetrates the airspace of
your beloved and glorious homeland."
"Fight, resist these aggressors and teach them a
new, unforgettable lesson about values that their
empty souls lack."
During and since the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War,
Saddam has responded to punishing action by the
West with dramatic threats of retaliation that were
rarely carried out.
Clinton launched the strikes in response to
Saddam's weekend assault on Kurdish rebels in
Irbil, the main city in the Kurdish safe haven in
northern Iraq.
Associated Press correspondent Yalman Onaran
reported from Irbil yesterday that the city was
calm, but the boom of heavy artillery could be
heard to the south.
Trucks loaded wit fighters of the Iraqi-allied
Kurdistan Democratic Party headed out of the city'
in long convoys, some heading towrd the city for
Sulaymaniyah, 100 miles to the southeast. "We
will attack Sulaymaniyah tonight, God willing,"
said one KDP fighter, who refused to give his
name.
Iraqi television showed men in the northern city
of Mosul, within the U.S.-declared Kurdish safe
haven, marching in the streets in support of
Saddam.
Saddam claimed Iraqi forces shot down most of
the missiles yesterday. In Washington, Gen. Joseph
Ralston said there was "no evidence" of successful
Iraqi counterattacks.
In addition to the missile strikes, Clinton also
declared that the southern no-fly zone would be
moved up from the 32nd to the 33rd parallel - a
line that reaches the southern suburbs of Baghdad
and places roughly half of Iraq inside the zones:
Iraq's deputy prime minister insisted the
American attack was unjustified, saying Saddam's
forces had withdrawn from Irbil "several hours"
before the missile strikes. He also derided U.S.
claims that Saddam had violated U.N. Resolution
688, which prohibits the Iraqi leader from oppress-
/
rr
4
IRAQ
JOSH WHITE/Daily
ing his people.
"We did not violate U.N. resolutions," Deputy
Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said on CNN. "I chal-
lenge the American administration (to say) upon
what basis of international law ... this aggression
was being justified."
But U.S. and rebel leaders said Iraqi forces had
not withdrawn from Irbil before the attack and
fighting continued south and east toward
Sulaymaniyah.
Iraq's ruling Revolution Command Council
urged U.N. Security Council members to rein in L
the United States - and seemed to threaten them
as well if they did not.
The United States and Britain were having r
trouble gathering support in the Security Council
for a resolution condemning Iraq; France and
Russia, two other permanent council members,
opposed the measure. The council did approve a
routine renewal of the sanctions against Iraq, as
expected.
Russia condemned the bombing, which it said
could send events in the region spiraling "out of
control." China urged both sides to show restraint,
while Britain said the United States was right to
attack after Saddam's army moved north into
Kurdish rebel areas with 45,000 soldiers and 300
tanks.
British Prime Minister John Major said the U.S.
attacks were designed to prevent a recurrence of
"the humanitarian tragedy" after the Persian Gulf
War in 1991 when Saddam's forces killed large
numbers of Kurds.
Wing span 185 ft.
Height 40 ft. 8 in
ta seed 59nph
Cruising speed 509 mph
|Ran3ge mode1 10'000 Mi
Armament (B-52H) Single 20mm
cannon in tail turret,
12 AGM-86 cruise
missiles externally
and eight internally
on CSRL
Builder Boeing Co.
Official nickname Stratofortress
AP GRAPHIC oUrce: Jane's All theWordd's Aircraft
Officials say missile barrage
was a 'limited' response
10
WASHINGTON - U.S. military
officials said yesterday that the missile
barrage against Iraq's anti-aircraft net-
work represented a limited response by
President Clinton, who rejected options
ranging from attacks on Saddam
Hussein's military headquarters in
Baghdad to blasting Iraqi troops still
occupying Kurdish villages.
"We could have done a lot more,"
said one Pentagon official who partici-
pated in the combined Navy/Air Force
assault launched from the Persian Gulf.
"But the president's policy decisions
may inflict more punishment than the
warheads."
While the strike was portrayed as a
response to Hussein's dispatch of troops
and tanks into Kurdish areas, the mis-
sile attacks steered clear of direct U.S.
military involvement in long-simmer-
ing Kurdish feuds.
Instead, the targets were surface-to-
air missile, or SAM, sites along with
their associated radar and command
and control centers that defend an area
south of Baghdad. Clinton yesterday
unilaterally extended the southern "no-
fly zone" for Iraqi aircraft 70 miles far-
ther north from the zone created by
allied forces at the end of the 1991 gulf
"We could have
done a lot more"
- A Pentagon official
who was part of Iraqi assault
war.
As of noon Wednesday, aircraft from
two major Iraqi airfields, Tallil and
Nasireah, in the new no-fly sector will
face attacks by U.S. warplanes. And
troops using an infantry training base in
the new no-fly area no longer will be
able operate with air support.
"Now, in order to conduct this no-fly
zone, we will have to have coalition air-
craft fly farther north into Iraq than they
have in the past," Air Force Gen. Joseph
Ralston, vice chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. "The rea-
son for the strike was to take out those
air defenses that would threaten the
coalition aircraft."
Defense Secretary William Perry
made clear the steps were designed to
enhance regional stability for Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia - and their oil
exports. "Our national interests are not
tied to which party prevails in this con-
flict in northern Iraq," Perry said.
Pentagon officials said Perry's com-
ment underlined a firm decision by
Clinton to stay out of the intra-Kurdish
fighting in northern Iraq where
Hussein's troops have sided with one
faction against another supported by
Iran.
"The issue is not simply the Iraqi
attack on Irbil," Perry said. "Saddam
Hussein has demonstrated once more
his willingness to use military power
recklessly, and we must demonstrate
once more our willingness and capabil-
ity to check that power and deter (him)
from being the regional bully."
Clinton and Pentagon officials
acknowledged that Iraqi troops were
remaining in Irbil while tanks and
artillery moved on other Kurdish vil-
lages.
Instead of becoming embroiled in the
Kurdish areas engulfed by fighting,
Clinton's decision permits U.S. air
superiority to come into play once
again. If, as Hussein has threatened,
Iraqi warplanes fly Wednesday, they
will be easily outclassed by Air Force
warplanes based in Saudi Arabia and
Jordan.
10
AP PHOTO
At United Nations Headquarters, United Nations Deputy Ambassador of Iraq Saeed H. Hasan speaks to reporters after United
Nations Security Council consultations on the U.S. attack on Iraq yesterday.
France, Russia criticize U.S.
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The Washington Post
PARIS - France and Russia criticized U.S. airstrikes on
Iraq yesterday, marring the Clinton administration's hopes for
allied unanimity against President Saddam Hussein.
Despite its five-year role as a partner in enforcing "no-
fly zones" over northern and southern Iraq, France was
conspicuously frank among NATO allies in refusing to
endorse the U.S. cruise missile attack. The French govern-
ment said it viewed the evolving situation in Iraq with
"anxiety."
Spain expressed understanding but simultaneously voiced
regret that the missile barrage was not postponed. Britain and
Germany, meanwhile, declared outright support for the deci-
sion to retaliate for Saddam's movement of troops into the
protected Kurdish zone of northern Iraq.
President Clinton telephoned French President Jacques
Chirac Monday night to inform him of the impending strikes.
According to reports broadcast here, Chirac tried in vain to
persuade Clinton to take a more measured response.
A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said that under the
circumstances of the American presidential election cam-
paign, France understood Clinton's "motives." Clinton
referred to those political pressures in his conversation with
Chirac, according to a French official.
"This was a conversation between good friends," the offi-
cial said of the two leaders' talk.
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