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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 30, 1993                   TAG: 9307300084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. PLANES FIRE ON IRAQI GUNS

The separate incidents, both involving Navy EA-6B Prowler surveillance planes, occurred at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Iraqi time (5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. EDT) at sites an estimated 80 miles into the "no-fly" zone imposed over southern Iraq after the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Both American planes returned safely to their home base, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, which has been in the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon said it was too early to tell whether the missiles damaged the Iraqi artillery batteries.

The incidents came four days after a U.S. Air Force F-4G Wild Weasel fighter jet was involved in a similar exchange. Iraq has denied that its anti-aircraft batteries ever "locked onto" the American planes - a step that effectively aims their artillery at the jets.

Tensions between Iraq and the United States have been rising since a June 26 U.S. missile strike on an Iraqi intelligence complex in retaliation for an alleged Iraqi plot to kill former President Bush.

Baghdad subsequently refused to permit U.N. weapons inspectors to install surveillance cameras in a suspected missile-engine site. Although U.N. negotiators ostensibly worked out a compromise, officials say the squabble is far from over.

In the past, the United States has viewed Iraq's actions as part of a calculated plan of harassment by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Washington has warned repeatedly that it would retaliate against any Iraqi battery that targeted its radar on U.S. warplanes.