Iraq: Iraqis Demonstrate in Wake of Bombing

Roughly 10,000 Iraqis took to the streets on Sunday in response to the Western attack that targeted five Iraqi radar installations in order to protect U.S. and British planes which patrol long-standing no-fly zones in southern Iraq. The no-fly zones, established after 1991's Persian Gulf War, have continuously been a point of contention in Iraq, the general population of which has been stirred to defiant demonstrations by means of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and its censored and decidedly anti-U.S. accounts of military events.

An official Iraqi press release called for revenge and Iraq's Trade Minister, Mohammed Medhi Saleh, stated, "Iraq will continue defying American and British aircraft flying in its airspace...and will confront them by all possible means." Iraq officially forfeited rights to portions of its air space as part of its surrender at the end of the Persian Gulf War, a provision intended to allow Western allies to protect Shi'ite Muslims in the South and a Kurdish population in the North from an attack from Baghdad. In further statements from Iraq, Lieutenant General Shahin Yassin Mohammed reported that at least 15 Western planes had been hit by his anti-aircraft forces since 1998, a contention that has continuously been denied by the U.S. and Britain.

Not surprisingly, however, the Iraqis were not the only group left disgruntled over the latest action from the U.S. and Britain. The raid was protested by Russia, China, and several Arab countries. Turkey and France, both members of the Gulf War coalition that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991, were also critical of the action.