
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 19, 1993                   TAG: 9304190083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. HITS RADAR SITE IN IRAQ

A U.S. fighter jet apparently destroyed an Iraqi radar-tracking site south of that country's northern no-fly zone Sunday after the Iraqis targeted the American aircraft while it was on routine patrol, the Pentagon announced.

The incident marked the second time in eight days that the Iraqis have provoked allied warplanes in what some officials suspect reflects an effort by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to test Western reaction following a unilateral cease-fire that he declared in January.

It was not immediately clear whether the move was just an aberration or was intended to signal that Baghdad is about to abandon its cease-fire policy.

It was the first time since the Persian Gulf War that a U.S. warplane has bombed a tracking site that is outside one of the no-fly zones that the West has imposed in northern and southern Iraq - suggesting that Washington is taking a tough line.

U.S. policy, outlined repeatedly to Iraq, is to permit U.S. warplanes to retaliate immediately if they feel threatened by an Iraqi action, whether it involves actual shooting or the use of tracking radar.

A spokesman said Sunday that policy had not changed.

U.S. officials said Sunday's incident occurred at 1 p.m. Iraqi time - 4 a.m. EDT. The radar site was near Quayyarah airfield, about 30 miles south of Mosul, the major city in the northern no-fly zone and 11 miles south of the zone's southern border.

The U.S. plane, an Air Force F-4G Wild Weasel, was on routine patrol with another F-4G inside the northern no-fly zone when it was targeted by the Iraqi radar, the Pentagon said.

The pilot fired an anti-radiation missile, and the radar beam disappeared.

Iraq's official news agency reported that three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the incident, and quoted a foreign ministry spokesman denouncing the attack as provocative and hostile behavior.

Both U.S. pilots returned safely to their base in Incirlik, Turkey.

On April 9, Iraq fired at four U.S. fighters patrolling its northern no-fly zone, and the jets - three F-16 Falcons and an F-4G Wild Weasel - dropped four cluster bombs on the artillery site. Later bomb-damage assessments showed the artillery site was destroyed.

That incident interrupted a two-month cease-fire and presented President Clinton with his first visible challenge from Iraq since just after he took office.

The last previous Iraqi challenge to a Western airplane occurred Feb. 3.

by CNB