Well, it looks like my earlier post may have been right after all. Now the NY Times is reporting that we have, indeed, been carrying out bombing raids in Iraq lately. Although they don’t refer specifically to the figure of 100 aircraft, it seems like the rumors in the mideast may be fairly close to the truth.
(For those of you who didn’t hear about it – there’s been a rumor going around the mideast lately, which made the front page of Israel’s largest newspaper as well as military intelligence rumor-mills like debka, that on 6 Sep there was a joint US/UK strike on Iraq involving about 100 aircraft, which took out antiaircraft radar and guns, missile sites and airfields in the western part of Iraq. This was interpreted as opening a path for a special-forces-driven invasion with air support coming in from Turkey; the AA being cleared out lets our bombers through, and taking out missile sites in the west reduces the odds of Iraq being able to hit Israeli targets with Scuds. The airfields are because those were his aircraft most capable of carrying nonconventional weapons.)
Other rel news – Iraq allows weapons inspectors, Saudis to allow US to use bases for war.
Yonatan Zunger’s Blog 