Iraq Might Have A New Missile
Iraq claims that it has developed a new missile with a range of 90 miles, according to a London-based Arab newspaper.
A range of 90 miles is the maximum allowed under the U.N. weapons ban. Such missiles would be incapable of reaching Israel from within Iraqi borders, but they could reach much of Kuwait.
The London paper, Al-Hayat, quotes Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf, apparently in remarks Thursday to a small group of diplomats and reporters in Cairo.
"We have released in the Iraqi skies a new 100 percent Iraqi missile," the paper quoted al-Sahhaf as saying. "We called it Samed [Arabic for 'steadfast']."
The U.S. has vowed to throw its formidable air and missile force in the Gulf into action if Iraq does not allow U.N. weapons inspectors free access to all sites, including President Saddam Hussein's palaces.
In other developments:
- The U.S. increased its presence in the Gulf Thursday with six F-16 fighters, six B-25 bombers, and one B-1 bomber. That hardware is added to a force of two aircraft carriers, 320 aircraft, and 30,000 troops.
- British pilots have intensified training runs, and a second British aircraft carrier has been ordered to the region.
- The U.N. is telling 81 relief staff on leave from jobs in Iraq not to go back, lest they are held hostage in the event of a U.S. military strike.
- Iraq has started a week-long mourning of its dead in the 1991 Gulf War. Artillery fired 21-gun salutes in the early hours Friday, and Saddam's senior aides laid wreaths on the Martyrs' Monument in Baghdad.
- Foreign journalists in Baghdad have been invited to attend a ceremony commemorating the bombing seven years ago of the Amiriya air raid shelter, in which more than 400 civilians were killed. U.S. military planners mistook Amiriya for an army command center.
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