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Saddam Says Iraq's Enemy Has Failed in Confrontations
The enemy of Iraq "have failed in their confrontations with Baghdad," while Iraq's military "has done a good job," Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said on Wednesday.
Saddam made the remarks during a meeting with Tawab Mullah Hwaish, Iraqi deputy prime minister and minister of military industrialization, and Iraqi Air Defense Commander Shahin Yassin Mohammad, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
The Iraqi leader expressed satisfaction with the achievements of the Military Industrialization Commission and the Iraqi Air Defense, the INA said.
"The enemy has failed and will lose more," Saddam told the two top military aides, saying that the enemy has exposed its modern technology through its daily aggressions against Iraq and that this will inspire Iraqi soldiers' will power to protect their country.
Saddam did not specify the enemy, but he was apparently alluding to the United States, which, supported by Britain, has been sending warplanes to patrol the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq since 1991 to allegedly protect the Kurds and the Shiite Muslims from possible attacks by the Iraqi government troops.
The Iraqi air defense force, which has regularly fired missiles at the U.S. and British aircraft overflying the two air exclusion zones, has mustered more and more efforts to shoot down the hostile planes.
U.S. President George W. Bush and the Pentagon said on July 26 that Iraqi air defense force nearly hit a high-flying U-2 spy plane and threatened to launch a major air strike against Iraq's air defense system.
Iraq has since vowed to continue challenging the U.S. and British jets monitoring the two no-fly zones.
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