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Iraq Ponders Military Measures to Avenge US Strike
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Saturday discussed with his officials about military measures to avenge the air raid by the US and Britain on Friday evening, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said.
Saddam chaired a joint meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and the regional command of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, and the meeting discussed military measures to be taken to retaliate against the US and its allies in case of a repetition of the aggression, the INA said.
The meeting also discussed measures to make reprisals against those countries providing facilities to the US and British aggression against Iraq, the INA said.
In a separate report, the INA said that Saddam had decided to form a volunteer army of 21 divisions, but giving no details.
This was regarded as another move by the Iraqi president to support the intifada (uprising) of Palestine against Israel, a staunch ally of the US in the Mideast region.
US and British warplanes, taking off from bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, bombed south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad Friday evening, killing two and wounding 20 other civilians as claimed by Baghdad.
This was the first raid on the Baghdad area since the US and Britain launched an air campaign against Iraq in December 1998.
US and British planes, by using bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey, have been enforcing two no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq for claimed aim of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south.
The two air exclusion zones were imposed by the US-led Western alliance after the 1991 Gulf War, triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
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