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American Morning

Allies Carry Out Fifty-Plane Strike on Iraq

Aired August 10, 2001 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: We begin now with word of heavier than usual air strikes in Iraq's southern no-fly zone. And sources tell CNN three targets were hit, 50 allied planes were involved.

Our military affairs correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, is at the Pentagon and has more details -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the kind of strike that the commander of forces in the region is permitted to take without having to run it up the chain of command. But it is a little more than the usual response that the U.S. and British planes have when they are targeted by Iraqi planes.

Three targets were hit in today's strike, according to Pentagon officials -- a radar site, a surface-to-air missile site and a communications node that helps tie those radars together.

As you said, about 50 planes were involved in the operation, but fewer than 20 were actually strike aircraft. The rest of those were support planes. They flew both from land bases in the region, and also off the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise, which is currently operating in the Persian Gulf.

Pentagon officials say that all of the planes have returned safely. And that they believe all three targets were hit and significantly damaged, although they don't have the official damage assessment yet.

The U.S. and British planes used precision-guided munitions to attack these targets. An effort to degrade Iraq's air defenses as a result of the fact that over the last few months, in particular, Iraq seemed to be getting better in tracking U.S. and British planes as they were patrolling the no-fly zone and taking pot shots at them, both with anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missile.

In one notable incident, a U.S. U2 reconnaissance plane reported that a surface-to-air missile came a little too close for comfort, exploding just beneath the high-flying spy plane. And that's one of the reasons why the U.S. had contemplated perhaps a little heavier than usual strikes.

Just to put this in perspective, this is not as big as the action that the United States took back in February -- on February 16 -- when five different targets were hit, including some above the 33rd parallel, up near Baghdad. All of these strikes took place below the 33rd parallel within the southern no-fly zone, although up in the northern area of the no-fly zone, according to Pentagon sources -- back to you.

CELLINI: Well, Jamie, Raul Amenes (ph) reports that it is quiet in Baghdad, so we have that to report as well.

Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

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