Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RIVISTA STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA~BASlN ÖZETi
US planes bomb
Iraq missile site
• Pentagon says the
American jetfighters
dropped cluster
bombs after they
were fired on
Reuters
BAGHDAD- U.S. planes dropped
cluster bombs on a mihtary position in
northern Iraq on Thursday, and Iraq
said a soldier and a civilian were
wounded.
Baghdad, accusing Washington of
aggression, said its air defenses returned
fire, forcing the American
planes to flee. "The American admin-
Istration committed this morning a
new act of aggression against an antiaircraft
battery 20 km (f2 miles) west
of Mosul," an official s,Pokesman said
in a statement. "A mihtary personnel
was wounded and two. vehicles damaged,"
he added. A civilian was
wounded when the planes "tried to approach
the air defense battery for a
third time," he said. In Washington,
the Defense Department said on
Thursday U.S. jetfighters had dropped
cluster bombs and laser-guided bombs
. on an Iraqi missile site in self-defense.
The strike came after U.S. aircraft,
on a routine patrol of an allied-enforced
air excJusion zone over north-
ern iraq, observed a missile launch
from a surface-to-air battery five ltJ 10
miles (eight to 16 km) west of Mosul,
the Defense Department said in a statement
Two waves of attacks by four warplanes.
-- two F-4s and two F-16s -were
involved in the action, which appeared
to have destroyed the- missile
site, the Pentagon said.
The Iraqi spokesman said the patrolling
planes attacked the site three
times: at 8.55 a.m., 9.10 and 10.20.
He said twice the Iraqi anti-aircraft
crews fired back "at the American
planes which ran away from the area."
Meanwhile, U.S. Major Nancy Cochran,
a spokeswoman for the U.S. led
allied coalition task force at Incirlik
airbase in southern Turkey, said the
planes returned to Incirlik safely. The
coalition air force has been based at
Incirlik since the end of the Gulf War
to monitor Baghdad's treatment of its
3.5 million Kurdish population in
northern Iraq. The warplanes fly daily
-reconnaissance flights over northern
Iraq.
The last confirmed attack by U.S.
planes on an Iraqi installation was on
July 25, when a U.S. F-4G fired a
HARM missile at an Iraqi anti-aircraft
missile site after the plane was tracked
by the battery's radar.
The allied coalition. air force in Tur-
key consIsts of'80 U.S., British, French
and Turkish planes. .
For the first time since U.S. attacks
on Iraqi anti-aircraft sites in southern
Iraq in the final days of former President
George Bush's administration in
January, Baghdad said its ground crews returned fire on the
raiding planes. Iraq's accusation of U.S. aggression against it
co~trasts with statements in the past whIch were mild and
VOIdof fiery language. No signs of built-up tension between
,the t~~ adversaries are discernible at present, but Baghdad
t~levl~lOno~ Wednesday showed large-scale military exer-
CISesmv~lymg ~ks and rocket l~unchers, attended by De-
;fense MinIster Ah Hassan aI-MaJeed. The television also
screened footage of a meeting President Saddam Hussein
held on Wednesday with the army branch of the ruling Baath
Party.
U.S. pilots, patrolling air-exclusiori zones.in northern and
southern Iraq, and Iraqi ground crews have clashedsevéral.
times. The latest incident was on July 29 when two U.S. Navy
planes fired missiles at Iraqi anti-aircraft sites in the
south. The United States, France and Britain, which fought
Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, imposed a ban on
Iraqi flights north of the 36th Parallel more than two years
ago to deter any Iraqi army attacks on rebel Kurds who now
control much of the north. A similar ban was later imposed
on southern Iraq to protect dissident Shiites who fled Iraqi
government forces after post-war revolts. In the north, the
latest incident took place on April19 when two F46s, targeted
by the radar of an anti-aircraft missile battery, fired a missile
In response. In all incidents in the past Iraq denied U.S.
reports that its ground radar provoked the attacks.
PKK abducts 12 soldiers as massive operations continue
• Observers say regional measures inefficient for discharged soldiers
70
Turkish Daiiy News .
ANKARA- Despite assurances by top-level state
and military officials that Turkey is taking every measure.to
protect soldiers fighting separatist militants
in the Southeast, the Kurdistan WorKers' Party (PKK)
abducted at least 12 soldiers on Thursday.
The abduction came two days after Minister of Defence
Nevzat Ayaz issued a statement in which he said
"all necessary measures were taken for the safe
transport of military personnel" in the troubled region
where nearly 9,000 people have died in nine years of
violence.
Among the 12 soldiers were two specialist sergeant,
former soldiers who joined the army ona professional
basis after their discharge, the semiofficial
Anatolian agency said. _
Quoting Chief of General Staff Command Press
DirectorCol. Doäu SilahclOglu, the agency said that
the abducted soldiers had violated orders to wait for
air transport and took the intercity coach without informing
anyone. SilahclOälusaid that out of 735 soldiers
who had completed their military services or
who were on leave in Van, 295 were transported by
air and a further 440 were scheduled to be carried by
planes on Thursday. • .
Ayaz had said on Wednesday that necessary mea.
sures had been taken and that 20,000, out of an annu~
a.J circulation of some 700,000 soldièrs, had been .
transported by air. .
Public sensitivity on the issue had flared up when .
more than 30 off-duty soldiers .and 5 civilians were '