Iraq - bombing continues

US & British Planes have been striking Iraq almost daily since December 1998

Since January, the US and UK have conducted more than 200 air strikes against Iraq. At least 55 people have been killed, and more than 160 people wounded. On February 25, 17 people were killed and 100 wounded when a missile exploded in a residential complex. On May 12, 12 people were killed by US and British warplanes in northern Iraq. What's going on?

According to the UN Secretary General's report of February 1999, $500 million in humanitarian aid couldn't be funded because of lack of oil revenues ... 1/4 of the infants and children remain malnourished.... And, on Feb. 28, the US bombed two communication centers for a major oil pipeline, thus jeopardizing half of Iraq's oil revenues!

On March 17, The Arab League asked "for an immediate halt to all military activities against Iraq which are only worsening the situation and threatening the security and stability of the region."

News on attacks, and relevant information

May 25 -- US warplanes acting in bombed a communication site and destroyed several civil installations in the "no-fly" zone over northern Iraq (Source: AFP)

May 23 -- Two Iraqis were injured in attacks by US and British warplanes on civilian installations and anti-aircraft defenses in northern Iraq (Source: AFP)

May 15 -- US warplanes bombed sites in nothern Iraq (Source: Reuters) (May 12 - 18: 15,000 Turkish troops invaded 20 km (12 miles) into northern Iraq "to prevent Kurdish rebel forces assembling in the region." Source: Reuters, May 18)

May 12 -- U.S. and British warplanes killed 12 civilians and destroyed livestock in a raid on northern Iraq (in the province of Ninevah). A number of others were injured. The attack also killed 200 sheep. The Nineveh governor Mohammed Abdel-Qader said that US and British planes attacked the shepherds twice, the second time striking farmers who were trying to help the injured. (Source: AP & AFP). On May 14, Russia accused the US and Britain of intentionally targeting warehouses used to distribute humanitarian aid and killed 12 people. "The list of victims among peaceful citizens is growing, and we witness the systematic destruction of Iraq's economic potential and infrastructure," the statement said. (Source: AP)

May 11 -- US fighter jets bombed 'Iraqi radar sites' in northern Iraq. (Source: AFP)

May 10 -- US warplanes bombed 'Iraqi air defences' in northern Iraq (Source: AFP)

May 9 -- US bombing in southern Iraq -- 4 people killed, 5 wounded . US & British war planes bombarded a private house near in the southern province of Basra, killing three people and wounding three others. A fourth Iraqi was killed and two others wounded when US and British planes carried out a separate raid on a civilian site in Basra. (Source: AFP)

May 8 -- U.S. warplanes based in southern Turkey fired 18 times on civilian and military positions in northern Iraq. Three Iraqis were killed and two others were wounded (Source: Reuters & AFP)

May 3 -- Iraq said two people were killed and 12 injured in U.S.-British airstrikes against northern Iraq. (Source: CNN) ( May 3rd is the 52nd day of US/British bombing against Iraq, since the December bombing )

May 3 -- US and British warplanes drop Cluster Bombs in southern Iraq. Two shepherds (Abd Nader and Hanan Btair) were critically injured. (Source: Reuters)

May 2 -- U.S. warplanes bombed 'Iraqi air defense sites' in northern Iraq (near Mosul). (Source: AP)

April 29 -- US aircraft attacked a residential quarter in the northern city of Mosul, injuring 20 people and devastating four houses. U.S. bombs or missiles also hit a television relay station about two km (just over a mile) from the poor al-Wahda residential area bombed on the outskirts of Mosul, 450 km (280 miles) north of Baghdad Nadhim Mahmoud Mansour, a 53-year-old father of seven whose house was one of the four hit in Mosul, said all members of his family had been wounded. ``Why did they bomb the poor? This is a civilian area not a military site,'' Mansour said as he sat in front of his ruined house amidst what remained of his belongings. Shaha Abdullah Fathi, the mother of several children, was operated on for chest and leg wounds after the attack. Another mother, Wasimah Kamal, said her 12-year-old son Ashraf suffered serious face wounds. Another son and two young daughters had gone deaf from the explosion, she said. ``We did three urgent operations on the injured. One of them was a nine-month-old baby,'' said Dr Ahmed Ibrahim Dhanon at the Saddam General Hospital in Mosul. (Source: Reuters)

April 21 -- US bombing in northern Iraq

April 17 -- US bombing in northern Iraq (near Mosul)-- 4 people killed, 1 wounded

April 16 -- U.S. F-16s and British GR-1 fighter-bombers struck two Iraqi air defense sites in southern Iraq (Source: AP)

April 12 -- US Navy jets attacked sites in southern Iraq

April 10 -- US bombing in southern Iraq -- 2 people killed, 9 wounded (Source: Reuters) ( more than 160 attacks by April 10 in southern Iraq )

April 7 -- Russia renewed its criticism of recent U.S. and British air strikes against Iraq, particularly the bombings of Iraq's main oil exports pipeline. (Source: Reuters)

April 5 -- US and British warplanes destroyed an Iraqi oil pipeline control station in the south of the country in the second such attack in three days

April 4 -- An Iraqi was wounded and a house destroyed in US and British air raids on military and civilian sites in southern Iraq.

April 3 -- US air strikes hit Iraq's main crude oil pumping stations. Iraq said the attack on the station, similar to a February strike on a terminal in northern Iraq, is aimed at crippling already limited oil sales -- Iraq's sole source of income under U.N. economic sanctions. After a lull, oil exports resumed through the terminal.

April 2 -- US planes destroyed two homes in southern Iraq in the first US-led airstrikes reported in more than two weeks. Two people were wounded in the attacks. Note: There was a 'lull' in bombing attacks against Iraq from March 16 to April 2. Previously, the US had been bombing Iraq almost daily

March 1 -- US-British bombing in northern Iraq on Monday killed one person and injured nine among the local population.Two raids were carried out against a residential complex belonging to the northern (Iraqi) oil company. In one of the heaviest raids on Iraq in two months, U.S. jets Monday dropped more than 30 2,000-pound and 500-pound laser-guided bombs (over a 60 minute period) on radio relay sites, communications targets and air defense guns in northern Iraq (source: the Pentagon).

Feb. 28 --Three Iraqis were killed, including a child, and several others were injured Sunday in US air raids on farming villages in the northern no-fly zone in the Ninevah province. U.S. strikes also hit the power station and communications center for a major pipeline about 25 miles from Mosul, cutting off the flow of Iraqi oil to Turkey. Officials have said 56 percent of Iraq's oil exports flow through the pipeline. The oil export is used by Iraq to pay for food and medicine for civilians under an agreement with the United Nations. The export pipeline from northern Iraq to Turkey has been shut down since Sunday afternoon, costing Baghdad $16 million a day, based on a price of $12.99 million a barrel. (source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, March 3).

Iraq Says U.S. Bombs Disrupted Oil Flow 1 March 1999, the Washington Post "Given the depressed price of oil and the state of Iraq's oil industry, there's currently a $900 million gap between the revenue expected and what's needed to fund the humanitarian program," said Benon Sevan, the executive director of the U.N. oil-for-food program. Benon Sevan, executive director of the Office of the Iraq Program, briefs the Security Council on the impact of the consequent interruption of the oil flow. 3 March 1999

Feb. 27 - American F-14, F-15, F-18 planes implemented 28 sorties against civilian and military targets. It was the first time, since mid-December, that American planes attacked civilian targets on the outskirts of Baghdad. 23 people were injured.

Feb. 25 - The bloodiest incident thus far occurred on January 25, when an American AGM-130 missile exploded in a Basra housing complex. A total of 17 people died that day and almost 100 were wounded. Most of the victims were children.

Did the U.S. Intentionally Bomb Civilians in Basra, Iraq? Feb. 26, 1999 article by the International Action Center
NPR: Targetting Civilians January 25, 1999 letter to NPR, by Ali Abunimah. (link to ali abunimah's bitter pill -- uncovering media myths about the middle east) Stray Missiles and Words March 8, 1999 letter to NPR, by Ali Abunimah.

Critical Information :

"Clinton administration officials argue that the attacks were in self-defense, prompted by Iraqi "aggression" against American warplanes "defending the no-fly-zones" in northern and southern Iraq.

This argument fails because the "no-fly-zones" have no basis in a United Nations resolution or any other element of international law, and were not part of the Gulf War cease-fire agreements.

Rather they are a unilateral dictate by the United States, and a direct and clear violation of Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which is guaranteed by international law, the U.N. Charter and numerous Security Council resolutions, including the Gulf War cease-fire agreements.

If Iraqi civilians die as a result of illegitimate and illegal U.S. attacks on military targets in Iraq, this is the moral equivalent of targeting them directly -- a form of international "felony murder."

The enforcement of the "no-fly-zones" is supposed to be for the protection of the civilian population of northern and southern Iraq. [The January 25] killings clearly demonstrate that Iraqi civilians are its victims."

- Hussein Ibish, Media Director, ADC; Letter in USA Today, Thursday, January 28, 1999

Exposed: Britain and America's merciless secret blitz on Iraq by Robert Fisk, 21 February 1999, The Independent

Iraq: facts vs. speculation (about no fly zones ) 30 December 1998 letter to NPR, by Ali Abunimah.

Return to "Stop killing the people of Iraq".

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