WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. jets Wednesday bombed an Iraqi military air defense radar that was moved into the southern no-fly zone near Al Kut and could threaten the aircraft, according to U.S. Central Command.
It was the fourth such strike in five days, and the third time in the same period Al Kut was on the target list. Al Kut is about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.
The strike occurred at approximately 4:30 a.m.
On Monday, jets enforcing the southern no-fly zone struck a communications site near Al Kut. On Sunday, jets bombed mobile radar and cable repeater sites. On Dec. 14, aircraft bombed at least three military air defense communications facilities, including one in Al Kut.
Also Monday, U.S. planes dropped nearly 480,000 leaflets over southern Iraq. There were six different leaflets dropped in six locations. One warned Iraqi military personnel not to repair facilities bombed in no-fly zone strikes. Others listed radio frequencies where they could hear U.S. and British broadcasts and warned them not to fire on coalition aircraft. It was the seventh leaflet drop over southern Iraq in the last three months.
It followed a similar drop on Dec. 10 of roughly 250,000 leaflets.
Each of the attacks was carried out after Iraqi forces somehow threatened coalition aircraft, according to Central Command. So far in 2002, Iraqi air defense forces have fired at coalition aircraft more than 470 times and violated the southern no-fly zone on 13 separate days, Centcom said. Coalition aircraft have responded by striking Iraqi military targets more than 80 times.
The southern no-fly zone is enforced primarily by Navy aircraft flying off aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and some Air Force jets flying from a base in Saudi Arabia.
The United States and Britain have patrolled the northern and southern no-fly zones since the end of the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. The zones were set up to protect Iraq's Kurdish and Shiite minorities.
