This Week in Iraq War History

A previous entry in this series here.

Events of March 14-21, 1999: Unacknowledged in the United States, the war in Iraq continued.

14 March, 1999, CENTCOM:

COALITION AIRCRAFT RESPOND TO SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE FIRE

MACDILL AFB, FL - At approximately 2:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today, U.S. Air Force F-16CG "Fighting Falcon," and British Royal Air Force GR-1 "Tornado" aircraft enforcing the Southern No-Fly Zone struck two Iraqi military communications sites using precision guided munitions in response to surface-to-air missile fire directed at coalition aircraft.

The strikes were conducted near As Samawah, which is approximately 150 miles southeast of Baghdad, and near Ad Diwaniyah, which is approximately 100 miles south of Baghdad.

US WAR PLANES TAKING OFF FROM A NATO BASE IN SOUTHERN TURKEY POUNDED IRAQI DEFENSES SUNDAY IN THE NO-FLY ZONE OVER KURDISH-CONTROLLED NORTHERN IRAQ. FROM ANKARA, AMBERIN ZAMAN HAS THE DETAILS.

A SPOKESMAN AT THE INCIRLIK AIRBASE SAID THE AMERICAN PLANES MADE AN UNSPECIFIED NUMBER OF ATTACKS AFTER IRAQI ANTI-AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY TRACKED THEM WITH RADAR. HE SAID THE BOMBINGS WERE CARRIED OUT FOR DEFENSIVE PURPOSES.

COALITION AIRCRAFT RESPOND TO NO-FLY ZONE VIOLATIONS

MACDILL AFB, FL - At approximately 1:45 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today, U.S. Air Force F-16CG "Fighting Falcon," and U.S. Navy F/A-18 "Hornet" and F-14 "Tomcat" aircraft enforcing the Southern No-Fly Zone struck an Iraqi radar relay site 200 miles southeast of Baghdad near As Salman, and a radar site 290 miles southeast of Baghdad in the vicinity of As Shuaybah.

The strikes were in response to Iraqi aircraft violations of the Southern No-Fly Zone. These hostile acts were the latest of more than 135 Iraqi provocations in the southern no-fly zone since Operation Desert Fox.

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AFPN) -- For the third day in a row, coalition forces have attacked Iraqi ground sites that posed a threat to aircraft patrolling the northern no-fly zone.

Between 11:45 p.m. and 12:15 p.m. Iraqi time March 16, Operation Northern Watch aircraft detected Iraqi radar posing a threat to coalition aircraft. Responding in self-defense, Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles dropped GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on several antiaircraft artillery sites northwest of Mosul.

All coalition aircraft departed the area safely.

Since the war's end in 1991, U.S. and other allied coalition pilots have enforced U.N.-mandated no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq. The zones protect Kurds in the north and Shi'a Muslims in the south from Saddam Hussein's aggression. Along with U.N.-imposed "no-drive" restrictions, the no-fly zones also prevent the Iraqi dictator from marshaling forces to invade neighboring states.

Until mid-December, U.S. and British air patrols encountered little resistance, but in the wake of Operation Desert Fox, Saddam declared the zones invalid. Iraqi aircraft began violating the zones regularly, and Iraqi forces began targeting coalition aircraft with radar. Iraqi fighters tried to lure coalition patrols into surface-to-air-missile ambushes.

At first, U.S. and coalition planes struck back only in self-defense. As Iraqi challenges persisted more or less daily, U.S. defense officials expanded the rules of engagement. Pilots began striking Iraq's integrated air defense system, not just specific sites. A further expansion in February now gives military leaders even more targeting flexibility, allowing strikes on command and control and communications facilities.
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Morale among the American airmen in Kuwait is high, Harvey noted. He attributed frequent contact with home as part of the reason.

"E-mail is the best thing that ever happened to the United States Air Force," said the fighter pilot, whose wife, Connie, and daughters, Anne, 15, and Sarah, 12, live in Columbia, S.C. "We are able to chat with our loved ones back home on a daily basis. That has just been phenomenal for morale. That's the best thing they've ever invented."

Air Force Master Sgt. Eric Farr, also with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing in Kuwait, attributes the high morale to the wing's real-world mission. The 23-year veteran airman from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., is a first sergeant with the wing's logistic squadron.

He said the Southern Watch mission provides realism and an awareness that's nearly impossible to achieve during training alone.

"No one likes to see war or be a part of a war. There's no joy in bringing destruction on anyone," Farr said. But putting 10 or 20 years of training to actual use is a kind of validation, he noted. "We've trained hard, and now that training's paying off."

16 March, 1999: A. Elizabeth Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, releases a letter marking the anniversary of the Halabja massacre:

The sympathies of the United States are with the Kurdish people of northern Iraq and with all Iraqis as we commemorate the eleventh anniversary of the massacre at Halabja.

On March 16, 1988 the Iraqi military attacked Halabja, a Kurdish town in northern Iraq, with chemical weapons. An estimated 5000 civilians were killed and 10,000 injured.

This monstrous assault was part of the "Anfal" campaign against Iraqi civilians, directed by Saddam Hussein's regime. Eyewitnesses report that thousands of people were killed in scores of chemical attacks during the "Anfal."

Eleven years later, the people of Halabja still suffer from the effects of the March 16 attack. There is evidence that they experience much higher rates of serious diseases, particularly cancer, neurological disorders, birth defects and miscarriages.

Last November, I was honored to inaugurate a major conference on Halabja at Meridian House. As one outcome of that conference this week we will announce plans to provide significant funding for a feasibility study in northern Iraq on ways to assist the Halabja victims.

As we remember Halabja, we must remind ourselves and the international community that Saddam Hussein's regime must never be permitted to rebuild its weapons of mass destruction programs.

We commend the Human Rights Alliance for bringing to the world's attention the Iraqi regime's infamous human rights record and for commemorating the tragic events at Halabja.

Sincerely,

A. Elizabeth Jones
Acting Assistant Secretary of State
for Near Eastern Affairs

RICHARDSON, PICKERING FAVOR EXPANSION OF OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM

Washington -- Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson testified March 17 that the U.N.'s Oil-For-Food program for Iraq is an essential component of the U.S. Administration's Iraq strategy and is, therefore, key to our national security.
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Pickering emphasized that the Clinton Administration's policy is to contain Saddam Hussein until he is removed from power. He said that the United States would continue to maintain sanctions on Iraq, enforce the no-fly zones in the north and south, and maintain a robust military presence in the region.

18 March 1999, UNSCOM:

UNSCOM DISPUTES IRAQI CHARGES ON LIVESTOCK DISEASE

The U.N. Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) March 18 refuted Iraqi charges that the spread of hoof and mouth disease among Iraqi livestock is the result of UNSCOM's destruction of a laboratory that was producing the vaccine to counter the disease.

18 March 1999: The government of Iraq claimed it arrested five people for the previous month's assassination of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadek al-Sadr.

18 March 1999: Albanian, American and British delegations signed what became known as the Rambouillet Accords - a proposed peace agreement between then-Yugoslavia and a delegation representing the ethnic-Albanian majority population of Kosovo. It was drafted by NATO and named for Chateau Rambouillet, where it was initially proposed.

The Serbian and Russian delegations refused to sign.

The accords called for NATO administration of Kosovo as an autonomous province within Yugoslavia; a force of 30,000 NATO troops to maintain order in Kosovo; an unhindered right of passage for NATO troops on Yugoslav territory, including Kosovo; and immunity for NATO and its agents to Yugoslav law. The American and British delegations must have known that the new version would never be accepted by the Serbs or the Contact Group. These latter provisions were much the same as had been applied to Bosnia for the SFOR (Stabilisation Force) mission there.

While the accords did not fully satisfy the Albanians, they were much too radical for the Serbs, who responded by substituting a drastically revised text that even the Russians, traditional allies of the Serbs, found unacceptable. It sought to reopen the painstakingly negotiated political status of Kosovo and deleted all of the proposed implementation measures. Among many other changes in the proposed new version, it eliminated the entire chapter on humanitarian assistance and reconstruction, removed virtually all international oversight and dropped any mention of invoking "the will of the people [of Kosovo]" in determining the final status of the province. Even the word "peace" was deleted.

19 March, 1999. Air Force Print News:

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- Iraqi aircraft violated the southern no-fly zone March 19, prompting coalition air strikes against radar and communications sites.

At about 2 a.m. EST, Air Force F-16CG Fighting Falcon, and British RAF GR-1 Tornado aircraft struck an Iraqi military radar site near As Shuaybah, about 290 miles southeast of Baghdad, and a military communications site about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad in the vicinity of Muzalbah.

No coalition aircraft were damaged during the incident, and battle damage assessment is ongoing.

Speaking of the no-fly zone violations, a U.S. Central Command statement said, "These Iraqi hostile acts were the latest of more than 140 provocations by Saddam Hussein in the southern no-fly zone since the end of Operation Desert Fox.