[PEN-L:7379] Action Against Iraq Escalating

["Frank Durgin" <fdurgin1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

                                                   Friday, May 28, 1999

              MIDEAST
              Overshadowed by Kosovo War, Action Against Iraq
              Escalating
              By JOHN DANISZEWSKI, Times Staff Writer




                           AIRO--While NATO jets have been slamming
                           targets in Yugoslavia for the past nine weeks,
                           the United States' other--and far less
                      visible--air war has intensified over Iraq.
                           Virtually unnoticed, U.S. and British aircraft
                      have responded to what the coalition partners
                      describe as provocations by Baghdad. The allied jet
                      fighters, flying from Turkey and the Persian Gulf,
                      have been chipping away systematically at Iraqi
                      radar posts, air defenses, and other military and
                      command facilities.
                           Despite the allies' use of laser-guided rockets
and
                      other precision munitions, Iraq claims that some of
                      the strikes have gone astray, destroying private
                      property, killing at least 20 civilians and leaving
                      scores injured.
                           Although one might think that the enormous
                      demands for air power in the Balkan conflict would
                      diminish allied activity over Iraq, if anything, the
                      pace of attacks has picked up slightly since the
                      North Atlantic Treaty Organization action in
                      Yugoslavia began.
                           According to an unofficial tally of actions
                      announced by the U.S. Central and European
                      commands, there have been about 19 strikes against
                      Iraq in April and May, roughly equal to the total for
                      all of January, February and March. In other
                      words, airstrikes have been taking place about every
                      third day.
                           In a way, the Yugoslav conflict has worked to
the
                      advantage of U.S.-British forces in the Persian Gulf,
                      Mideast analysts say, by distracting the attention of
                      the Arab world away from Iraq--and deferring any
                      action on the basic split in the U.N. Security
Council
                      over what to do about Iraq.
                           "The daily attacks are a war of attrition
against
                      Saddam [Hussein], and [yet] at the same time, they
                      do not arouse mass anger among Arabs," observed
                      Nabil Abdel Fattaj, a researcher at Cairo's Al
                      Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "It
                      is not making headlines anymore."
                           And it is not only the Kosovo war that has put
                      Iraq on the back burner. In the Mideast, the top item
                      on the diplomatic agenda for the year is likely to be
                      Israel's new government under Ehud Barak and the
                      peace process.
                           U.S. officials say the bombings have exacted a
                      heavy toll on Hussein's regime.
                           "We have certainly degraded their ability to
                      respond," said Air Force Maj. Joseph LaMarca Jr.,
                      spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which
                      oversees U.S. forces in the Gulf. He said Iraqi air
                      defenses have been weakened and noted that the
                      bombings may have fueled dissension in the Iraqi
                      military.
                           Since Iraq announced in January that it would
                      begin resisting the Western-imposed "no-fly" zones
                      in northern and southern Iraq, the U.S. military
                      said there have been about 180 Iraqi threats against
                      allied forces, including 111 violations of the no-fly
                      zones, nine cases of illuminating allied aircraft
with
                      radar, 16 firings of surface-to-air missiles and at
                      least 50 engagements with antiaircraft artillery,
                      LaMarca said.
                           U.S. officials deny that the coalition
airstrikes
                      are anything but defensive and say they are an
                      appropriate response to the Iraqi actions.
                           Among ordinary Iraqis, the mood is bleak, said
                      journalist Subhy Haddad, speaking from Baghdad.
                      "It seems that there is no end," he said with a sigh.

                           Three permanent Security Council
                      members--Russia, China and France--have urged
                      the lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq after
                      nine years, arguing that they have caused
                      intolerable suffering to the Iraqi people without
effect
                      on the regime.
                           The U.S. and Britain, however, insist that
                      Hussein's regime still poses an extreme danger to
                      Iraq's neighbors and must be contained.
                           In the absence of any consensus for a new
                      approach, the Security Council last week simply
                      extended for six months the existing oil-for-food
                      program that allows Iraq to sell limited amounts of
                      petroleum to pay for food, medicine and other basic
                      needs under U.N. auspices.
                           Looking ahead, the absence of meaningful focus
                      on Iraq probably means a prolonging of the agony of
                      that country's 20 million people, according to Gihad
                      Khazen, editor of the London-based Arabic
                      newspaper Al Hayat.
                           "It's a tragedy," Khazen said. "Saddam Hussein
                      is such a hated figure that the administration is
                      getting away with it."

                      Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved