Iraq said on Sunday U.S. jets had raided Basra's civilian airport for the second time in a week, targeting its radar systems and the passenger terminals.
"Planes of the American enemy targeted and destroyed for the second time the civilian radar system of Basra airport," an Iraqi Transport Ministry spokesman said in a statement to the official Iraqi News Agency.
According to the spokesman, the attack on the airport in Basra took place at 12:45 a.m. (0845 GMT) on Sunday. The U.S. Central Command confirmed the attack and said it had targeted a military mobile radar.
"In response to Iraqi hostile acts against coalition aircraft monitoring the southern no-fly zone, Operation Southern Watch coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons Saturday to strike a military mobile radar near al Basra, Iraq, and a surface-to-air missile site near Qalat Sikur, Iraq," spokesman Major Bill Harrison said.
"Target battle damage assessment is ongoing. Coalition strikes in the no-fly zones are executed as a self-defense measure in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts against coalition forces and their aircraft," he said, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was confident of securing a fresh United Nations resolution on stripping Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
"I hope and believe we will get the resolution that we want," Blair told the BBC. "I totally understand the concerns that people have, the worries that they have about precipitate military action. "But the United Nations has taken a very clear position on this. It said Iraq must disarm itself of these weapons, the existence of these weapons in the hands of this regime is a threat to the world ... and the United Nations has to be the way of dealing with it, not avoiding it."
According to Blair, discussions were continuing with the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — France, Russia and China — which have the power to veto any proposed resolution.
"It is probably not quite as definite as it may appear from some of the papers," he said. The British leader hinted he was ready to consider military action if the United Nations did not agree to the resolution.
"Let us just wait and see where we get to ... the sensible thing is to get the resolution but make it clear to Saddam there is no way of avoiding this. It will happen either through the United Nations inspections route or it will happen otherwise, but it will happen," he said.
Asked whether regime change in Iraq was Britain's target, Blair said the current focus was disarmament, but that in itself would have a huge impact on the operation of the Saddam's leadership.
"What we know from intelligence ... is that Saddam sees the retention of these weapons as an essential part of the retention and maintenance of his regime," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
