October 4, 2002	Friday	Rajab 26, 1423

WASHINGTON, Oct 3: US-British warplanes struck in southern Iraq on Thursday after an aircraft came under fire as it dropped leaflets on Iraqi air defense positions, the US military said.

The leaflets warned Iraqi gunners not to fire on coalition aircraft or “you could be next.”

US and British planes attacked an Iraqi air defence headquarters and operations centre which was believed to be the source of the fire, said Lieutenant Dan Hetlage, a Pentagon spokesman.

With the United States also stepping up pressure for a renewed international campaign against Iraq, the raid was near Tallil, about 250 kilometers southeast of Baghdad.

“The air strike was in retaliation for shooting at the aircraft dropping the leaflets that say don’t shoot at us,” Hetlage said.

The leaflets contained a cartoon showing a fighter aircraft firing missiles into a ground radar and a surface-to-air missile launcher.

“Iraqi ADA beware!” read the message. “Don’t track or fire on coalition aircraft.”

On the other side, the leaflet said: “The destruction experienced by your colleagues in other air defence locations is a response to your continuing aggression toward planes of the coalition forces.”

“No tracking or firing on these aircraft will be tolerated. You could be next,” it said.

Commander Frank Merriman, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said US forces also dropped leaflets on Iraqi positions in October 2001.

“We just want them to get the message, hey, this is why we keep striking,” Hetlage said.

A Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the leaflets were dropped only in the Tallil area, the site of numerous exchanges with Iraqi forces.

Although the Central Command has not publicized past leaflet drops, the official said, “As they are needed, this has been going on since Desert Storm.”

The leaflets, however, suggested that US forces are preparing the ground with psychological operations in case diplomatic efforts fail and the United States goes to war.

US and British forces have recently stepped up air attacks in the no-fly zones that cover large swaths of southern and northern Iraq.

The zones were imposed by western powers after the 1991 Gulf War to contain Iraq militarily and help protect minority Kurd and Shia populations from reprisals by Saddam’s forces.

In the latest strike, warplanes fired precision guided missiles at an “air defence sector headquarters and integrated operations centre” near Tallil, the US Central Command said.

On Tuesday, British and US planes hit a mobile radar near Al Kut, 160 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. Last Saturday there was an air attack near the southern city of Basra.

No US plane has been shot down by Iraqi forces since the Gulf War, but US military officials say Baghdad has improved the effectiveness of its air defenses with fiber optic communications.

In an effort to dramatize the dangers to pilots, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday made public year-old video clips of anti-aircraft fire and surface-to-air missile shots at coalition aircraft over the no-fly zones.

Pentagon officials complain that Iraqi forces have fired at US and British forces scores of times since Baghdad offered on September 16 to allow UN arms inspections without conditions.—AFP