-Caveat Lector-

>From Associated Press


Saturday December 26 4:11 PM ET

Iraq To Fire On Patrol Planes

<Picture: AP Photo>
AP Photo


By LOUIS MEIXLER Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq will fire on warplanes patroling the no-fly
zones, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Saturday.

Speaking on Qatar's Al-Jazeera television, Ramadan was asked if Iraq would
accept the overflights of U.S. and British aircraft that maintain no-fly
zones in northern and southern Iraq.

``We say frankly now that any violation to Iraqi airspace will be met by
Iraqi fire,'' Ramadan said.

The interview was conducted in Baghdad hours after Iraq said that its
anti-aircraft gunners had driven off an attack by ``enemy'' warplanes that
flew in from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The official Iraqi News Agency did not identify the nationality of the
aircraft, but it usually uses the word ``enemy'' to describe warplanes from
the United States and Britain. The United States has aircraft in Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait. Britain also bases aircraft in Kuwait.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

>From Agence France Presse

Sunday December 27, 5:04 AM

Iraqi parliament confirms UNSCOM will never return

BAGHDAD, Dec 26 (AFP) - The Iraqi parliament confirmed Saturday that
weapons inspectors from the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) on disarming
Iraq will not be allowed to return after last week's punishing US-British
air strikes.

Meanwhile Baghdad accused "enemy" jets of attacking an air defence
installation and said its gunners forced them to flee in a hail of
anti-aircraft fire, as British military sources said pilots had seen such
fire but had not been attacked.

The parliament issued a statement reiterating its "previous decision to
break off cooperation with UNSCOM, which was buried by the mercenary
aggression" of the United States and Britain.

In the commmunique -- addressed to "the Iraqi people, Arab people, and the
just people of the world" -- it said Iraq will not allow the inspectors to
return, "no matter what pretext the United Nations uses" in an attempt to
get them back into the country.

"UNSCOM's mission in Iraq is finished because it turned out that it was
spying for the intelligence services of nations hostile to Iraq," said the
statement, cited by the official news agency INA.

The United States and Britain pummeled Iraq with four days of cruise
missile attacks last week following a report from UNSCOM chief Richard
Butler charging Baghdad had failed to cooperate fully with UN weapons
inspectors.

Iraq broke off all cooperation with UNSCOM in late October after charging
that its weapons inspectors had been spying for Israel.

It retracted the decision on November 14 and pledged its full cooperation
with UNSCOM, narrowly averting threatened US-British air strikes at the
time.

But the allies launched Operation Desert Fox last week after Butler
delivered a report to the United Nations charging Baghdad with reneging on
the pledge.

The inspectors must verify that Iraq no longer holds weapons of mass
destruction before UN-led sanctions, now in their eighth year, can be
lifted.

The parliament said Baghdad had "fulfilled all its commitments to the
United Nations" regarding disarmament and called on the UN Security Council
to lift the oil embargo against Iraq "as the first step toward a complete
lifting of sanctions."

It also demanded compensation for the "human and material losses" suffered
during Operation Desert Fox.

Meanwhile an Iraqi army spokesman said fighter jets violated Iraqi airspace
from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on Saturday, but gave no indication where the
attack took place and did not say if they were US or British planes.

"Enemy warplanes attacked an Iraqi air defence installation at around 11:35
a.m. (0835 GMT)," said the spokesman, quoted by INA.

He added that Iraqi gunners "responded, forcing the planes to ditch their
bombs blindly before they continued on their way."

It is the first time Iraq has said its anti-aircraft batteries have opened
fire since last week's air raids.

British and US planes based in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia patrol a "no-fly
zone" across southern Iraq imposed in 1992 under the banner Operation
Southern Watch to protect Shiite Moslems from government attacks.

British military sources said Saturday that British pilots patrolling the
zone had seen anti-aircraft fire but that it was too far away to constitute
an attack.

"No allied aircraft have been fired upon or indeed fired on anyone. We have
spoken to our chaps out there and we have no incidents involving British
planes today," Britain's defence ministry said earlier.

In Washington the Pentagon confirmed the report after having initially said
the British pilots had come under fire. It said no US planes were involved.

The Iraqi spokesman said another formation of "enemy jets" violated Iraq's
air space, out of range of anti-aircraft gunners, at around 09:15 a.m.
(0615 GMT).

Earlier this week Iraq also accused "enemy" warplanes of firing two
missiles near the Gulf port of Basra.

Iraqi television showed pictures of craters it said were caused by the
missile strike, but both Britain and the United States strongly denied its
planes had opened fire.

Meanwhile the official Iraqi press demanded an immediate end to sanctions
and said proposals for anything less were futile.

"We will accept no other option other than the lifting of the embargo,"
said the official al-Qadissiya newspaper.

The Babel daily, controlled by President Saddam Hussein's son Uday, also
hammered home the message.

"Our people, who are still healing their wounds following the
imperialist-Zionist aggression, will accept nothing but the lifting of the
embargo. It is the goal for which we will fight and sacrifice ourselves."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A<>E<>R

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust

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