Iraqi no-fly zones conflict

Iraqi no-fly zones
Part of the lead-up to the Iraq War
No-fly zone detail
Date 1 March 1991 – 20 March 2003 (12 years, 2 weeks and 5 days) Location Iraq Result US-led victory Ended with the beginning of the Iraq War
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom  France (until 1998)  Turkey[1][2]  Saudi Arabia (Operation Southern Watch)  Australia (Operation Habitat) Operation Provide Comfort/Provide Comfort II: Germany  Netherlands Italy  Spain  Portugal	Iraq
Commanders and leaders
George H. W. Bush (until 20 January 1993) Bill Clinton (20 January 1993 – 20 January 2001) George W. Bush (from 20 January 2001) John Shalikashvili (until 1997) Hugh Shelton (from 1997) T. Michael Moseley John Major Tony Blair François Mitterrand Jacques Chirac King Fahd Prince Abdullah	Saddam Hussein
Strength
6,000 infantrymen 50 aircraft and 1,400 personnel at any one time	Unknown number of Iraqi Police officers
Casualties and losses
2 unmanned aircraft shot down	Unknown number of soldiers killed Unknown number of air defense systems destroyed 1 Su-22 Fitters shot down
1,400 Iraqi civilians killed (Iraqi government claim)[3]

The Iraqi no-fly zones conflict was a low-level conflict in the two

This military action was not authorised by the United Nations.[7] The Secretary-General of the UN at the time the resolution was passed, Boutros Boutros-Ghali called the no-fly zones "illegal" in a later interview with John Pilger.^[8][9]

Legality

The American, British and French governments justified the no-fly zones by invoking United Nations Security Council Resolution 688, though the resolution made no explicit reference to no-fly zones.^[7]

Role in preparation for ground invasion

From March to December 2002 the number of bombs dropped increased by 300%.^[10] 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".^[10] Whitehall officials privately admitted to the Guardian that the no-fly zones were being used to weaken Iraq's air defence systems instead of the stated aim of defending the Marsh Arabs and the Shia population of Iraq.^[10]

The commander of the USS Abraham 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".^[11]

Civilian deaths

The United Nations reported that in 1999 alone 144 civilians were killed during Coalition bombing raids.^[5] By 1999 over 1,800 bombs had been dropped on Iraq,^[12] while Iraq stated that 1,400 civilians died due to bombing during the NFZ.^[5]

The United States and coalition countries denied these allegations and cited popular Kurdish and Shia demands for no-fly zones, in order to protect against Saddam Hussein, who unhindered had committed numerous atrocities a few years earlier, such as the infamous 1988

Kurdish civilians. The establishing of no-fly zones effectively cut off Saddam Hussein from much of the north and secured the Kurdish population, who gained effective autonomy directly following the intervention. This autonomy has continued to thrive and even avoided the chaos and bloodshed that characterized the rest of Iraq during the 2003 Iraq war.

History

Events leading up to the Iraq War
14 July Revolution 1958 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict 1961–1991 17 July Revolution 1968 Iranian Revolution 1978–1979 Ba'ath Party Purge 1979 Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988 Iraqgate 1982–c.1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait 1990 Gulf War 1990–1991 Sanctions against Iraq 1990–2003 Iraqi uprisings 1991 Iraqi no-fly zones conflict 1991–2003 Iraq disarmament crisis 1991–2003 Arms-to-Iraq affair 1992–1996 September 11 attacks 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan 2001 Prague connection 2001 Iraq Resolution 2002 Wood Green ricin plot 2003 Colin Powell's UN presentation 2003
v t e

From 1992 to the United States-led coalition

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.[22]

American and British aircraft continuously enforced the NFZ, receiving anti-aircraft fire from Iraqi forces almost daily.

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 by Iraq. 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.^[24]

The operation continued until it transitioned to Operation 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, the British 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.^[25] 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.^[26]

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 the New 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."^[27]

The NFZs effectively ceased to exist with the beginning of the Iraq 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]}

See also

• Iraqi Airways
• Iraq sanctions
• Post–World War II air-to-air combat losses

References