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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Meer dan 240.000 clusterbommen gebruikt in Iraq



lennart
03-06-03, 21:57
'Dumb' bombs used to topple Saddam
June 3 2003
By Mark Forbes
Defence Correspondent
Canberra





A third of the bombs dropped on Iraq were old-style "dumb weapons" - despite suggestions from the Pentagon that 90 per cent of munitions used would be precision-guided.

The first detailed analysis of the coalition air campaign by the commander of US air forces, Michael Moseley, also reveals a heavy emphasis on psychological operations; 32 million pro-coalition leaflets rained down on Iraqis during the campaign and 610 hours of anti-Saddam Hussein propaganda were broadcast.

There were 10 authorised strikes against "media facilities", including the Baghdad office of the Arabic TV news channel al-Jazeera, in which a reporter died.

More than 240,000 cluster bombs were dropped on Iraq, the report shows. Australia refuses to use these weapons, which were said by doctors to have caused injuries to children during allied bombing raids.

Humanitarian organisations want cluster bombs banned because their hundreds of grenade-like explosives scatter as far as half a kilometre, sometimes over urban areas where they can lie undisturbed for years and then explode. During the war, Central Command in Qatar began investigating reports that cluster bombs had killed 11 civilians in Hillah, in southern Iraq, and admitted in April that, while aiming for Iraqi missile systems and artillery, it hit Baghdad suburbs with cluster bombs.

Retired Air Vice-Marshal Peter Nicholson said it showed a much higher proportion of precision-guided munitions were fired at the beginning of the campaign but, as the war progressed, fewer advanced weapons were used.

He criticised the number of Tomahawk missiles, each costing more than $1.5 million, used by the US. "They fired far too many Tomahawks just because it kept the US Navy in play,( Onzin, die Tomahawks worden nu weer vrolijk gebouwd door Lockheed Martin, gewoon vullen van de zakken)" he said. "They could have done the same thing with bombs from aircraft at a twentieth of the cost."

A total of 467,000 military personnel were deployed to fight Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2050 of them were Australian. Australia flew 565 out of 41,000 coalition missions, with 302 of those combat sorties. Airpower expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Aldo Borgu, said the report confirms that Australia's contribution was minor.

He said the report highlighted the incompetence of Iraqi air defences, which fired 1600 missiles, many more than originally thought, but failed to hit one coalition aircraft. One low-flying Warthog and six attack helicopters were downed by enemy ground fire. Thirteen allied aircraft were lost to mishaps, errors and equipment failures.

An allied plus could have been a successful propaganda campaign given that, "on the whole, the Iraqi military did not fight", Mr Borgu said.

According to Commander Moseley's report, 81 different leaflets were printed and 108 radio messages sent. Coalition aircraft over Iraq broadcast 304 hours of television.

Nearly 160 "leaflet missions" dropped 31.8 million leaflets. Commander Moseley notes that the paper could have made 120,000 toilet rolls. Some told Iraqi troops to surrender and avoid death. They were told to drape white flags on their tanks and military vehicles, move away from them, throw down their weapons and wait for allied forces to round them up.

"The US and its allies want the Iraqi people to be liberated from Saddam's injustice and for Iraq to become a respected member of the international community," one said. "Iraq's future depends on you."

Mr Borgu said the information provided by the report was far more detailed than anything released by the Australian military and would help in a real evaluation of the campaign.

A higher percentage of unguided munitions than expected had been dropped - nearly 10,000 as against nearly 20,000 precision bombs and missiles - but the proportion of smart weapons was still more than double that used in Kosovo and six times that used in the first Gulf War. It was a new trend in warfare, he said.

About half the precision guided munitions were laser-guided bombs and more than 800 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched at Iraq.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/02/1054406130502.html