U.S. warplane attacks Iraqi radar site in south

[CHARLES DOE]

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- An American warplane attacked an Iraqi
antiaircraft radar site near the southern city of Basra Tuesday after
the radar challenged the plane's enforcement of an allied ban on Iraqi
aircraft flights there.
``Shortly after 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time today, an F-4G Wild
Weasel fired a HARM missile at an Iraqi (antiaircraft) radar site in the
Southern Watch zone of Iraq,'' said a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt.
Michael Doubleday.
``The radar illuminated one of two aircraft which were in a flight,''
he said. ``The aircraft fixed on the radar and fired. There is no bomb
damage assessment at this time. The aircraft returned safely to base.''
Both planes in the Operation Southern Watch patrol were Air Force F-
4Gs. The HARM, or highspeed antiradiation missile which they carry, is
designed to knock out hostile radar. It homes in on the source of the
radiation and continues to do so at supersonic speed even after the
radar is turned off.
Illumination or ``lock on'' by antiaircraft radar is a hostile act
taken in preparation to firing missiles.
The hostile exchange was the first between American and Iraqi forces
since Saturday's raid in which U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and
Persian Gulf bombarded the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence
Service in Baghdad with long-range cruise missiles. The missiles struck
around 2 a.m. Sunday Baghdad time.
President Clinton ordered the attack in retaliation for what he said
was an attempt by Iraqi intelligence to assassinate former President
George Bush during an April visit to Kuwait.
At a White House news conference Tuesday, Clinton played down any
connection between the Iraqi radar challenge and the earlier attack on
the Baghdad intelligence headquarters.
He noted that a number of similar incidents in the flight exclusion
zones over Iraq have already happened both during his presidency and
before.
``The standard rules of engagement for flights in that region,'' he
said, ``are that if radar locks on to our airplanes, our airplanes are
authorized to take action against their installations.
``So this has happened a number of times and...based on the facts I
now have, I wouldn't read too much into it. This is part of the standard
rules of engagement.''
The United States and its allies enforce two flight exclusion zones
over Iraq. The first, which was imposed in early 1991 after the Persian
Gulf War, bans flights north of the 36th parallel. It was intended to
protect Iraq's Kurdish population, which had risen in revolt against
Iraqi dictrtor Saddam Hussein.
The southern flight exclusion zone, which bans flights below the 32nd
parallel, was imposed last summer. It was intended to protect Iraq's
Shiite Muslims, who are also in revolt against Baghdad, from air attack.
Both flight bans involved from a 1991 United Nations Security Council
resolution ordering Baghdad not to repress its own citizens.
Antiaircraft installations in both regions have occasionally
challenged American or other allied warplanes on patrol to enforce the
flight bans. The last such incident occurred in the North last April.
The Pentagon spokesman said he could not confirm or comment on
reports from Baghdad that Iraqi antiaircraft fire there earlier Tuesday
might have hit one of their own aircraft.