Saddam Hussein: Iraq is to confront the planes penetrating its airspace
Iraq-USA, Military, 1/5/1999

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has made good on statements that his country is going to confront Western planes that fly in Iraqi airspace. In an incident today in the southern no-fly zone, US warplans clashed with Iraqi aircraft, with one Iraqi plane crashing.

The Los Angeles Times quoted a senior US administration official as saying that there was no indication that the US warplanes' missiles hit the Iraqi planes, and speculated that the Iraqi plane may have crashed after running out of fuel.

In declarations broadcast by the Iraqi News Agency yesterday, Saddam Hussein said that the no-fly zones imposed on southern and northern Iraq are aggressions not only against Iraq but also against the will of Arab nation as a whole, adding that the air embargo is an aggressive action greatly opposed by Iraq who in return insists on resisting it with great courage.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin today acknowledged that there was no specific UN measure creating the no-fly zones, but he said he United States believes that UN Security Council resolutions 678, 688, and 687 allow for measures to be taken to protect the people of Iraq from the Iraqi government and therefore allow the creation of the zones. He said that the set of resolutions "does not specifically create an operation" but that it "provides the authority" to take action.

An American official said on Monday in Ankara that Western warplanes continue their sorties in the airspace of the no-fly zone in northern Iraq on Sunday after a two-day suspension because of the new year vacation.

Adam Stamp, the spokesman for Operation Northern Watch which imposes the air embargo, said that the US and British planes will continue the implementation of the air embargo. He did not say whether these planes violated Iraqi airspace in the context of the operation imposed on Iraq since 1991.

US and British warplanes flew in the airsapce of northern and southern Iraq, and their defense forces clashed with Iraqi position, resulting in the death of several Iraqi soldiers and citizens, before the end of 1998.

Previous Stories:
  US maintains no-fly zone position   (12/30/1998)
  Iraqi no-fly zones see a second clash as Iraq assert it downed a US plane   (12/30/1998)
  Iraqi delegate at AL: Delay in foreign ministers meeting reflect internal conflict in Arab states   (12/30/1998)
  Iraq: We will not recognize no-fly zones   (12/29/1998)

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