Most of the bombs dropped by US warplanes on Iraqi radar stations during last week's airstrikes missed their mark, Pentagon officials were quoted as saying by the Washington Post newspaper Wednesday.
Most of the misses were blamed on a new and expensive Navy guided bomb, said the Post.
About 25 of the guided bombs, which were first used in combat two years ago, were dropped in the attack, and the majority fell "tens of yards" from their "aim-points," a Navy official told the paper.
Another official said he had been told the bombs missed by an average of more than 100 yards, an unsatisfactory performance for a modern precision-guided weapon.
Pentagon officials' assessment of Friday's airstrikes against the Iraqi anti-aircraft system, which involved US and British warplanes, was initially glowing, according to the paper.
But the disclosure of the guided weapon's failure rate stunned defense officials and led them to scale back their assessment of the damage done in the attack.
"We feel we had a good effect. Was it perfect? No. Did every weapon system perform perfectly? No, but they never do," said Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman.
The guided bombs were fired at about 25 parts of Iraqi radar stations, radar dishes, communications bunkers and other components, and the Pentagon has been able to confirm damage to only eight of these targets, one official told the Post.
About another eight targets escaped damage, while satellite imagery has not produced usable pictures of the remaining radar targets, the official said.
According to the paper, the new Iraqi air defense system hasn't succeeded in downing a US warplane, but a new fiber-optic communications system that Pentagon officials say was being installed threatened to dramatically increase the speed with which aircraft could be targeted accurately.
"We were going after the brains," a Pentagon official said.
Pentagon officials contend that Chinese advisers were helping install the fiber-optics network.
They said the airstrikes were timed to occur on Friday to reduce the chances of injuring or killing the Chinese.
The United States has protested the presence of the Chinese advisers in Iraq several times, said reports.
Secretary of State Colin Powell met Wednesday with China's new ambassador, Yang Jiechi and expressed US displeasure over the matter, a State Department spokesman said.
Powell "took this occasion to convey a message, and the message was that we're concerned about the issue of Chinese workers in Iraq," said State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher.
The United States maintains that such outside assistance is not permitted under UN Security Council resolutions.
But Iraq denied Wednesday US reports that Chinese military and civilian workers were engaged in upgrading its air defense sites, according to The Associated Press (AP).
"There is no Chinese, no foreign, expert working in Iraq in the field of communications," deputy transportation and communications minister, Jameel Ibrahim, was quoted by the agency as saying.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Zhu Bangzao, has said he had no knowledge of Chinese military and civilian experts helping Iraq's military install underground fiber-optic cables, AP said. “Implying that the US allegations were meant to deflect criticism from Friday's air attacks,” he said.
"Any practice, any act to mislead the public and divert public attention is merely futile," AP quoted him as saying.
Last week, Zhu condemned the bombing as having "violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq" and "normal standards of international relations."
KUWAIT MARKS GULF WAR ANNIVERSARY WITH `THANKS AMERICA' CAMPAIGN
Meanwhile, the AP said Kuwait is commemorating the 10th anniversary of the end of the Gulf War with a major advertising campaign thanking the United States for leading the alliance that drove Iraq off its soil.
Full-page ads will run in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Stars and Stripes, and national magazines on February 26, the agency quoted a Kuwaiti diplomat as saying.
"You gave us back our country, our families, and our lives," Shafeeq Ghabra, the spokesman for the Kuwaiti embassy said in a statement.
"Without our allies, those things would not be ours today."
Powell, who headed the US military at the time, will be in Kuwait on February 26 to take part in commemorations.
Powell will arrive in the Middle East region on Sunday and will hold talks in Israel, the first leg of his tour that will take him also to the Palestinians territories, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
