| Iraqi no-fly zones | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of thelead-up to the Iraq War | |||||||
 No-fly zones boundaries as they were from 1996 to 2003 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States United Kingdom France (until 1998) Turkey[1][2][3] Saudi Arabia (Operation Southern Watch) Australia (Operation Habitat) (1991)Operation Provide Comfort/Provide Comfort II:  Peshmerga Germany Netherlands Italy Spain Portugal |  Iraq | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| George H. W. Bush (until 20 January 1993)Bill Clinton (until 20 January 2001)George W. Bush (until 20 March 2003)John Shalikashvili (until 1997)Hugh Shelton (until 2001)T. Michael MoseleyJohn Major (until 2 May 1997)Tony Blair (until 20 March 2003)François Mitterrand (until 17 May 1995)Jacques Chirac (until 15 December 1998)King FahdPrince Abdullah | Saddam Hussein | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 6,000 infantrymen 50 aircraft and 1,400 personnel at any one time | Unknown number ofIraqi Air Force personnel andIraqi Police officers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 2UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters shot down (friendly fire, 26 killed) 19USAF personnel deployed as part of the operation killed in theKhobar Towers Bombing 5RQ-1 Predatorunmanned aircraft shot down | Unknown number of soldiers killed Unknown number of air defense systems destroyed 1MiG-25 Foxbat shot down 1MiG-23 Flogger shot down 2Su-22 Fitters shot down | ||||||
| 1,400 Iraqi civilians killed(Iraqi government claim)[4] | |||||||
TheIraqi no-fly zones conflict was a low-level conflict in the twono-fly zones (NFZs) in Iraq that were proclaimed by theUnited States,United Kingdom, andFrance after theGulf War of 1991. The United States stated that the NFZs were intended to protect the ethnicKurdish minority in northernIraq andShiiteMuslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by the United States and the United Kingdom until 2003, when it was rendered obsolete by the2003 invasion of Iraq. French aircraft patrols also participated until France withdrew in 1996.[5]
The Iraqi government claimed 1,400 civilians were killed byCoalition bombing during the NFZ.[6] The Kurdish-inhabited north gained effective autonomy and was protected from a feared repeat of theAnfal genocide in 1988 that killed tens of thousands of civilians. Over 280,000 sorties were flown in the first 9 years of the NFZs.[7]
| Eventsleading up to theIraq War |
|---|
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From 1992 to the United States-led coalitioninvasion of Iraq in 2003, there were two NFZs in Iraq. The NFZ in the north of Iraq was established shortly after the Gulf War, extending from the36th parallel northwards. In August 1992 the NFZ in the south to the32nd parallel was established,[8] but in 1996 it was expanded to the33rd parallel.[9] The northern NFZ was initially part ofOperation Provide Comfort relief operations to a persecutedKurdish minority in Iraq, and was followed on byOperation Northern Watch. The southern NFZ was maintained byOperation Southern Watch.[citation needed]
WhenOperation Desert Storm ended in 1991, the safety of Kurds who were fleeing during theuprising from Iraqi persecution became an issue, andOperation Provide Comfort began. This operation essentially created a Northern NFZ to Iraqi military aircraft. The operation provided the Kurdish population with humanitarian aid and reassurance of safe skies.[citation needed]
On 26 June 1993, the U.S. conducted acruise missile attack on the Iraqi Intelligence Service's principal command and control complex in Baghdad. The U.S. public justification was retaliation for Iraqi Intelligence's assassination attempt on former presidentGeorge H. W. Bush while he was visiting Kuwait in April of that year to commemorate a coalition victory over Iraq in the Gulf War. Fourteen cruise missiles were launched fromUSS Peterson and nine of them launched fromUSS Chancellorsville. Sixteen hit the target, while three struck a residential area, killing nine civilians and wounding 12 others. Four missiles were unaccounted for.[10]
In October 1994,Baghdad once again began mobilizing around 64,000 Iraqi troops near the Kuwaiti border because of their expressed frustrations of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council.[11][12] In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops in the Persian Gulf to deter Iraqi aggression against Kuwait. Code-namedOperation Vigilant Warrior, the 1st Brigade of theFort Stewart, Georgia-based24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) deployed and drew pre-positioned equipment in Kuwait. The75th Fighter Squadron of the23rd Wing and itsFairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt IIs were also sent. They initially deployed fromPope AFB,North Carolina toKing Abdulaziz Air Base,Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, followed by the first forward deployment toAhmad al-Jaber Air Base, Kuwait. This allowed better face-to-face coordination withforward air controllers further forward in Kuwait. After the U.S. brigade deployed, Iraq withdrew its troops from the border.[citation needed]
On 14 April 1994, twoUnited States Air ForceF-15 Eagle fighter planesmistakenly shot down twoUnited States ArmyUH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, killing 26 U.S. military and civilian personnel.[citation needed]
In September 1996, the U.S. conductedOperation Desert Strike, and ships from theUSS Carl Vinson Battle Group, includingUSS Laboon, andUSS Shiloh, in conjunction withB-52 bombers escorted byF-14D Tomcats from USSCarl Vinson, launched 27 cruise missiles against Iraqi air defense targets in southern Iraq.[13] A second wave of 17 was launched later that day.[14] The missiles hit targets in and aroundKut,Iskandariyah,Nasiriyah, andTallil.[15] This was done in response toSaddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, attempting to launch an Iraqi military offensive campaign in theKurdish town ofArbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.[citation needed]
Operation Provide Comfort officially ended on 31 December 1996. Following Operation Provide Comfort, the United States continued to watch over the northern skies with the launching of Operation Northern Watch on 1 January 1997. Operation Northern Watch continued to provide air security to the Kurdish population in the north. By 1999, the Department of Defense had flown over 200,000 sorties over Iraq.[16]
American and British aircraft continuously enforced the NFZ, receiving anti-aircraft fire from Iraqi forces almost daily.[17] The operation ran until its conclusion on 1 May 2003. In the south, Operation Southern Watch was underway to watch over the persecuted Shi'ite populations. This operation was launched on 27 August 1992 with the mission of preventing further human rights abuses against civilian populations. Iraq challenged the no-fly zone beginning in December 1992 when a USAFF-16 fighter plane shot down an IraqiMiG-25 Foxbat fighter which had locked onto it in the Southern no-fly zone. The next month Coalition planes attacked Iraqi SAM sites in the South.[citation needed] Baghdad eventually halted firing on patrolling Coalition aircraft after August 1993.[citation needed]
In December 1998,Operation Desert Fox was conducted by theUSAF and theRoyal Air Force, which was a major four-day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets from 16 December to 19 December 1998. The contemporaneous justification for the strikes was Iraq's failure to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions and its interference withUnited Nations Special Commission inspectors.[citation needed]
In the aftermath of Operation Desert Fox in December 1998, Iraq announced it would no longer respect the no-fly zones and resumed its efforts in shooting down Coalition aircraft.Saddam Hussein offered a $14,000 reward to anyone who could accomplish this task, but no manned aircraft were ever shot down byIraq. Air strikes by British and American aircraft against Iraqi claimed anti-aircraft and military targets continued weekly over the next few years. In the early 2000s (decade), the U.S. developed a contingency plan,Operation Desert Badger for dealing with pilots shot down over Iraqi no-fly zones.[18]
The operation continued until it transitioned toOperation Southern Focus in June 2002. They began to carry out offensive sorties, not only against targets that had fired on them, but upon installations that had demonstrated no hostile intent. The U.S. claimed that these increased attacks were the result of increasing Iraqi provocations, but later, in July 2005, theBritish Ministry of Defense released figures showing that the number of provocations had actually dropped dramatically prior to and just after the increase in allied attacks. Their records indicate that in the first seven months of 2001, there had been 370 provocations on the part of Iraq. In the seven months from October 2001 into May 2002, only 32 such provocations were recorded.[19] General Tommy Franks later acknowledged that the dramatic increase in offensive sorties was an attempt to destroy the Iraqi defenses in much the same way as the air strikes at the beginning of the Gulf War had.[20]
In purported retaliation for the Iraqis' now-daily air defense attacks on Coalition aircraft, the September attacks included a 5 September 100-aircraft attack on the main air defense site in western Iraq. According to an editorial by Michael Smith for theNew Statesman, this was "Located at the furthest extreme of the southern no-fly zone, far away from the areas that needed to be patrolled to prevent attacks on the Shi'a; it was destroyed not because it was a threat to the patrols, but to allow allied special forces operating from Jordan to enter Iraq undetected."[21]
The NFZs effectively ceased to exist with the beginning of theIraq War in March 2003, since air superiority over the country was quickly attained by the coalition. The NFZs were officially deactivated right after Saddam Hussein's overthrow.[citation needed]
Neither the No-Fly Zones nor enforcing them with aerial bombing were authorised by the United Nations.[22] TheSecretary-General of the United Nations at the time the resolution was passed,Boutros Boutros-Ghali, called the no-fly zones "illegal" in a later interview withJohn Pilger.[23][24]
TheAmerican,British andFrench governments justified the no-fly zones by invokingUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 688, though the resolution made no explicit reference to no-fly zones.[22]
From March to December 2002 the number of bombs dropped increased by 300%.[25] This was recognised as "a clear indication that the no-fly zone is being used to destroy the country's air defence systems in anticipation of an all-out attack".[25]Whitehall officials privately admitted tothe Guardian that the no-fly zones were being used to weaken Iraq's air defence systems instead of the stated aim of defending theMarsh Arabs and theShia population of Iraq.[25]
The commander of theUSSAbraham Lincoln's air wing said that the NFZ "makes any potential action infinitely easier ... to fly over the same territory you're going to attack is a real luxury".[26]
TheUnited Nations reported that in 1999 alone 144 civilians were killed during Coalition bombing raids.[6] By 1999 over 1,800 bombs had been dropped on Iraq,[27] while Iraq stated that 1,400 civilians died due to bombing during the NFZ.[6]
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