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US, Britain Attempt to Split Iraq: FM
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahaf has said the insistence of the United States and Britain on maintaining the two no-fly zones is aimed at dividing Iraq into three parts.
The official daily Babil reported Monday that Al-Sahaf, addressing a gathering on Sunday at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, said the US and Britain interpreted the articles of the United Nations resolutions at their own will.
They have been wantonly violating Iraq's sovereignty and independence through the two no-fly zones, Al-Sahaf said.
The two no-fly zones, covering 10 of the total 18 provinces in Iraq, were set up in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War by the US and its allies. Iraq was warned that its planes over the two air-exclusion zones will be shot down.
US and British warplanes have since been policing the two zones with almost daily patrol. Baghdad virtually lost grip of the 10 provinces, including three in the north and seven in the south, and only controls the central part of the country.
According to Iraqi reports, over 300 people have been killed in the air raids by the US and British jets in the no-fly zones and nearly 1,000 injured since December 1998, when the US and Britain launched large-scale air strikes against Iraq.
The US and Britain continue to use the two no-fly zones to militarily contain the Iraqi regime, in addition to keeping in place the decade-old sanctions, triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
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