Iraq-U.S. Skirmishes Continue

Iraqi gunners on Wednesday fired missiles and artillery at U.S. warplanes and the Americans responded by bombing three communications facilities at air defense sites in southern Iraq, officials said.

U.S. planes have attacked six air defense facilities this week. Pentagon officials said Iraq has stepped up its efforts to shoot down American and British pilots patrolling the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq as U.N. weapons inspectors prepare to begin their work.

"It looks like it's a spike" in the long-running pattern of Iraqi challenges to the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, said Rear Adm. David Gove, deputy director of global operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He added, however, that the United States and Britain are sticking to their usual measured response.

"We're responding as we have for previous no-fly zone violations over the last couple of years," Gove said.

In a decade of flying over southern and northern Iraq, no U.S. or British pilot has been shot down. Iraqi gunners rarely use their targeting radars because they are vulnerable to U.S. high-speed anti-radiation missiles.

In Wednesday's confrontation, Iraqi air defenses fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at U.S. planes. In response, 12 U.S. planes dropped a total of 20 bombs on three air defense communications relay stations near Al Kut and Basra, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Monday, U.S. aircraft, responding to bursts of Iraqi missile and artillery fire, attacked an air defense communications facility and a radar facility near Al Kut and an air defense communications facility at Tallil.

The Bush administration, while seeking to strengthen allied support for a possible invasion of Iraq, is publicly pressing its case that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is flouting the United Nations by firing on U.S. and British aircraft, pursuing a banned program to develop nuclear weapons and violating a U.N. economic embargo.

In his remarks at the Pentagon, Gove said Iraq is continuing to sell oil in violation of U.N. limits imposed after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990. In the past week, allied vessels enforcing the U.N. economic embargo boarded 118 ships in the northern Persian Gulf and diverted 42 of them for carrying contraband material, Gove said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has frequently called Iraq's firing on U.S. and British planes intolerable.

On Tuesday he told reporters that retaliatory strikes on Iraqi anti-aircraft sites would continue.

"You can be absolutely certain we'll not allow our aircraft to continue to be shot at with impunity. We intend to respond," Rumsfeld said.

In preparation for possible war in Iraq, the administration has quietly contacted 50 countries, including Canada and Britain, to solicit contributions of troops and war materiel in the event Bush decides to use force, an administration official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, preparations continue for the U.N. weapons inspectors to begin seeking out Saddam Husseins arsenals.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix departed Baghdad Wednesday at the end of a two-day visit inaugurating a new U.N. oversight program, four years after the last inspections.

Already there appear to be some problems in what Iraq will allow the team to do.

Iraq's vice president said Wednesday there would be limits on the U.N. weapons investigation, though the top inspector says Baghdad has agreed to unannounced checks even on Saddam Hussein's special sites.

The question of unannounced checks on sites like Saddam's palaces, an issue that helped derail inspections in the 1990s, "is settled by the resolution. It wasn't even discussed," Blix said Wednesday.

The Swedish ex-diplomat was referring to the new U.N. Security Council resolution describing the inspections as a "final opportunity" for Iraq to meet its post-Gulf War obligations to give up any weapons of mass destruction. In accepting the resolution, Iraq accepted full and unfettered inspections. President Bush has threatened military action if the Iraqis don't disarm.

On Tuesday, Iraqi presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi confirmed Iraq would meet a U.N. deadline and file by Dec. 8 a comprehensive list of nuclear, chemical and biological programs. But he gave no indication whether the filing will contain anything beyond an inventory of Iraqi work in peaceful uses of nuclear, chemical and biological materials. The Security Council resolution demands the Iraqis include any work in weapons development.

But Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Wednesday that Iraq would fully cooperate with weapons inspectors, but he vowed to prevent them from gathering "intelligence."

"Any demand or question or a manner of work that conforms with the objective of the inspectors who want to verify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction will be met with full cooperation," Ramadan said in an interview from Baghdad with the private Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.

"But for demands which are clearly (meant) for intelligence or for other objectives that have nothing to do with the weapons of mass destruction, we will act in such a way so as to safeguard the country's sovereignty and security," he said.

While Blix claimed the sovereignty issue was not raised, he conceded that Iraqis were "somewhat concerned" they would not have time to gather all the information needed by Dec. 8.

"They had particular concerns about reporting on the peaceful industries, like chemical industry … they have quite a lot of that and they were a bit concerned about how they would go about" compiling information in that area, Blix said.

The Dec. 8 list is the standard by which the international community will judge whether Saddam's government is telling the truth.