US: Iraq Breached Resolution Already

In an action U.S. officials consider a violation of the recently-passed U.N. Security Council resolution, Iraq fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns at American and British warplanes patrolling a "no-fly" zone.

Coalition warplanes bombed an Iraqi air defense site in retaliation for Friday's firing, a Pentagon statement said.

It was the first coalition strike on Iraq since President Saddam Hussein's government accepted the Security Council resolution Wednesday that demanded he disarm and allow inspectors to search for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Under the resolution, a material breach must be reported to the Security Council for new debate and could be used as possible justification for U.S.-led military action to remove Saddam's government.

"When we were working on the resolution we said that Iraq should not take any action that would be hostile act against any member state," says Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Indeed, Paragraph 8 of the resolution says "Iraq shall not take or threaten hostile acts directed against any representative or personnel of the United Nations ... or of any member state taking action to uphold any council resolution."

U.S. and British aircraft are patrolling the no-fly zone to enforce an earlier U.N. resolution barring Saddam from oppressing his own people.

Firing on those aircraft would, according to White House officials, violate President Bush's zero tolerance policy toward Iraqi violations of the resolution.

But the big question is whether this incident starts a war with Iraq.

CBS News correspondent David Martin, reports that U.S. officials intend to report this incident to the Security Council, but it will be up to the council to decide whether this constitutes a violation of the resolution. And that doesn't seem likely since not all the members support the U.S. and British operations in the no-fly zones.

A U.S. official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the government considers the firings a material breach, but could not say whether or when American officials would raise the issue with the United Nations.

State Department spokesman Frederick Jones said the United States had the option of reporting the Iraqi firing to the Security Council but had not decided whether to do so.

Mr. Bush and other U.S. officials have said they believe Iraq's firing on coalition planes patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones would violate the latest U.N. resolution.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials, however, have been vague about whether Iraqi hostile actions in the zones would be considered a trigger for a wider U.S.-led attack.

In Paris, Chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix said Saturday Iraq will face the full might of the U.N. Security Council if it fails to cooperate completely with inspectors looking for suspected Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

He said technological innovations since U.N. inspectors were last in Iraq in 1998 would strengthen their ability to detect signs of Iraq's suspected weapons programs.

Blix also said that by voting unanimously for renewed inspections of Iraq, the Security Council greatly strengthened his team's ability to do their job and gave Iraq no room to obstruct the inspectors.

"If there is not full cooperation by Iraq we will be backed up in full by the council," Blix told reporters after meeting with France's foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin.

"We hope and expect to have full Iraqi cooperation," Blix said.

Blix was in Paris on his way to Cyprus, where an advance team of U.N. inspectors was gathering. The team is expected to fly to Baghdad on Monday, with inspections possibly beginning Nov. 27.

Before his talks with de Villepin, Blix warned that the inspectors' job will be tough.

"We are fully aware of the difficulties and the uncertainties, but we'll do out best," Blix said.

Saddam's government told Iraqis on Friday they must welcome the inspection team.

The Bush administration says it will go to war if Saddam does not comply with the new U.N. resolution to cooperate in declaring and dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam accepted the U.N. resolution on Wednesday but insists Iraq has no chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

"Iraq's acceptance of the resolution is an attempt to save our people from any harm," the state-run Al-Iraq newspaper said Friday. "This is the most important thing."

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. David Lapan said Iraq fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at coalition planes. The shots came from Iraqi positions near the southern city of An Najaf, said Cmdr. Dan Gage, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command.

Coalition planes used precision-guided weapons to attack an air defense communications facility near An Najaf about 85 miles southeast of Baghdad, a Pentagon statement said.

There were strikes Sunday against two surface-to-air missile sites near Tallil, 175 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The latest U.N. Security Council resolution, passed 15-0 on Nov. 8, prohibits Iraq from taking or threatening any hostile action against countries "taking action to uphold any council resolution."

The United States and Britain say they established the no-fly zones to enforce Security Council resolutions calling on Saddam to end attacks on Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south.

The resolutions do not specifically deal with interdiction zones.

Iraq calls the zones violations of its sovereignty and has repeatedly but unsuccessfully tried to shoot down the warplanes that patrol them.