Iraq air patrols resume after raid

WEB EXCLUSIVE Jane Arraf: Iraqi threats difficult to assess Christiane Amanpour: The British connection

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq says Western planes have resumed patrols over the country amid continuing criticism of the U.S. and Britain over Friday's raids on Baghdad.

Iraq has vowed revenge for the air strikes, which it says killed two civilians and injured more than 20 others.

President Saddam Hussein and his aides on Saturday discussed plans for retaliation in the event of any further raid, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

Washington said 24 U.S. and British planes hit Iraqi radar systems near Baghdad in Friday's attack, the first such raid ordered by new U.S. President George W. Bush.

The INA, quoting a military spokesman, said warplanes returned to Iraq on Saturday morning.

Russia, France and China -- permanent members of the U.N. security council along with the United States, Britain and France -- have all raised questions over Friday's raids.

But UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain was ready to authorise further action if Baghdad continued to attack British planes patrolling no-fly zones.

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The INA said Hussein had discussed the "American aggression and the military measures and plans that should be taken to retaliate against America and those who render facilities to it in case the aggression is repeated."

The agency said Saddam had ordered the formation of 21 military divisions consisting of Iraqis who have volunteered to fight with Palestinians in their uprising against the Israelis that began last September.

The Russian foreign ministry said Friday's raids proved that Washington and London relied on force in a policy that "worsens an already explosive situation in the Middle East and the Gulf."

President Vladimir Putin said air strikes did nothing to settle the situation around Iraq and urged any action taken against it to be sanctioned by the United Nations.

China urged the U.S. and Britain to stop attacks on Iraq immediately, while India said the raids hurt only innocents.

France said it wanted an explanation for the air strikes, while Turkey, from which U.S-led warplanes take off to patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, rebuked Washington for failing to inform it before the assault was launched.

A Spanish foreign affairs spokesman said that at no stage had Spain and other European allies been informed of the raid.

There was also criticism of the raids in the U.S.

"I think it's wrong, whether it's President Clinton or President Bush, to take this extraordinary action without the direct support and consultation of the U.S. Congress as well as the U.N.," Democrat member of the House of Representatives Charles Rangel told CNN.

Edward Peck, chief of the U.S. mission to Iraq during the Jimmy Carter administration, told CNN it was "ludicrous for the United States to say that Saddam Hussein is provoking us, because we're the guys overflying his country.

"The overflights are not legal, not part of any ceasefire, not part of any United Nations resolution."

'Under control'

Bush said Friday that U.N. regulations signed by Hussein at the end of the 1991 Gulf War authorised the strikes.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter said Hussein posed little immediate threat.

"In terms of large-scale weapons of mass destruction programs, these had been fundamentally destroyed or dismantled by the weapons inspectors as early as 1996, so by 1998 we had under control the situation on the ground," he told CNN.

U.S. ally Israel expressed understanding of the strike, saying Iraq still posed a threat.

But elsewhere in the region there was criticism of the mission.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said the raid was "a serious negative step."

He said it was time to review measures against Iraq -- noting a round of meetings between U.N. and Iraqi leaders, scheduled for February 26-27.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, about 200 Palestinians took to the streets late on Friday waving flags and posters of Hussein while chanting "Death to America."

Jordan, one of the Arab countries with the closest ties to Iraq, "never condones the use of military force against Iraq," said Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Illah Khatib.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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United Nations
Office of the Iraq Programme
The Iraqi Presidency
Iraqi National Congress
Iraq energy profile, U.S. Dept. of Energy

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