US: No-fly zones still quiet

US Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said yesterday that the skies over both the northern and southern no-fly zones in Iraq had been quiet since March 19. "We have not been flying," over northern Iraq, "for the last week or so. But we still know whether there are no-fly zone violations, and there have been none in the south either," Bacon said. "We will be flying, I assume, tomorrow and the next day," he stated.

On reports that Russia is helping Iraq upgrade its air defenses, Bacon said he is not aware that such help is being provided. Such shipments, he added, would be subject to the UN embargo, saying, "I think it would be a grave error for Russia to, as a member of the Security Council, to be violating that arms embargo."