Trouble For Sure

Iraq opens fire on U.S. aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone

THE FOUR AMERICAN FIGHTER JETS WERE ON A ROUtine monitoring flight over northern Iraq when ground radar locked on -- a clear sign of trouble. The next message was entirely unambiguous: several rounds of artillery fire from an Iraqi emplacement near the Saddam Dam. Though they were not hit, the American pilots followed standing orders and answered in kind, dropping four cluster bombs on the firing battery. The fighters, three F-16s and one F-4G, then returned to Incirlik air base in Turkey.

It was the first exchange of hostile fire over the no-fly zone, imposed two years ago by U.S.-led allies...

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