United States warplanes bombed Iraqi air defenses for a second consecutive day on Monday, responding to missile and anti-aircraft fire that Washington said was in "material breach" of the latest United Nations Security Council resolution.
The airstrikes came as UN arms inspectors arrived in Baghdad to resume a hunt for weapons of mass destruction that was suspended back in 1998.
Meanwhile, oil prices shot up more than a dollar a barrel in the US Monday as American planes bombarded Iraqi air defenses and UN weapons inspectors arrived in Baghdad.
On Monday, US President George W. Bush said he hoped the US confrontation with Iraqi President Hussein would end peacefully, however warned, "one way or the other he is going to be disarmed."
President Bush said his country and its partners were ready to enforce the recent UN Security Council resolution on disarming Iraq, a day before flying to Prague for the NATO summit, according to AFP.
"The question is will Saddam Hussein disarm, that's what the UN Security Council has said ... he must tell us whether or not he will disarm for the sake of peace," Bush said in an interview with eastern European journalists.
"If in fact, military action is needed, we will consult on that and everybody will be able to make a decision that they are comfortable with".
F-16 fighter aircraft operating out of Turkey dropped precision bombs on two anti-aircraft artillery sites near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul after they fired on coalition aircraft, a US defense official said.
"Triple-A was reported, and 15 minutes later they rolled in," said the official, requesting anonymity.
Just hours later, US and British fighters struck two communications centers and a radar installation in southern Iraq after coalition aircraft came under a barrage of surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft fire, the US military said.
The strikes were carried out by US F/A-18 Super Hornets, F-16 fighters, and British Tornados, which used precision guided weapons in attacks near the towns of Al Kut and Tallil, a US defense official said.
A White House spokesman said the Iraqi fire on US and British aircraft enforcing no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq were in violation of a ten-day-old UN Security Council resolution re-establishing arms inspections.
"We do, as you noted, believe it is a violation that would constitute a material breach," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
"In the resolution it says that Iraq shall not take or threaten hostile acts directed at any representative or personnel of any member state taking action to uphold any council resolution," he said.
McClellan said the United States has the option of reporting the breach to the UN Security Council, but he refrained from saying whether it intended to take that step.
In the meantime, in Baghdad, the Iraqi foreign ministry charged that McClellan's remarks were another sign that Washington intended to use UN Security Council resolution as "a cover to justify its aggressive actions against Iraq." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
