World

Iraq Attacks Take Their Toll

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 3, 1999 / 12:44 PM EST / CBS

Hit by hit, U.S. and British airstrikes against Iraqi targets in the past five weeks have done more damage to Saddam Hussein's defenses than December's four-day bombing campaign, Pentagon officials say.

In response, Saddam has pulled back anti-aircraft missile batteries from no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq in recent days after a near daily onslaught by U.S. and British warplane patrols that launched missiles and bombs to defend themselves from attack.

Meanwhile, the Clinton administration appears to be using the no-fly clashes to expand from self-defensive strikes against anti-aircraft sites to more offensive attacks like Tuesday's U.S. strike against three Iraqi anti-ship missile launchers near the Persian Gulf.

In response to an escalation in challenges to no-fly zone patrols, President Clinton last month authorized more robust rules of engagement, and recent targets have included defense-associated command and control sites.

Alarmed by the prospect of a hostile Kurdish state emerging to fill a power vacuum along Turkey's border, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said the U.S. attacks "seem to have gone too far." Ankara has hinted that it may not continue to support U.S. policy regarding Iraq if it runs counter to Turkey's national interests.

The U.S. military uses the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as a base of operations for enforcing the northern no-fly zone.

U.S. and British fighter jets have destroyed or hit about 40 anti-missile batteries since Dec. 28, when the Iraqi military began to target Western warplanes in the no-fly zones, according to Pentagon estimates. That compares to Western warplanes taking out about two-thirds of the 34 Iraqi air defense sites targeted in the Dec. 16-19 airstrikes.

Overall, the Pentagon estimates it has reduced Iraq's air defense system by 20 percent since the beginning of the December airstrikes, which were launched after Iraq refused to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspections.

In the latest clashes, Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft patrolling the northern zone on Tuesday attacked several Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery sites and an air defense radar installation in self-defense. And in the southern zone, Navy jets bombed an Iraqi anti-ship missile site deemed a potential threat to oil shipping off coastal Kuwait.

Estimates put the number of Iraqi surface-to-air missile batteries at several hundred. Iraq also has thousands of anti-aircraft guns, including radar fire-control systems that can hit large targets at night.

Analysts say Washington hopes the attacks will take a toll on the Iraqi leadership and help weaken Saddam Hussein's grip on power.

Bill Taylor of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if Saddam isn't able to shake off the tight U.S. crackdown on his forces, some military leaders may eventually turn against him.

"What is equally important but not really knowable is the toll o the morale of the Iraqi armed forces," Taylor said. "Soldiers are soldiers. You can only get beat up on so much before you sit back and say, 'What ... is going on? What am I doing this for?'"