Operation Desert Strike
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Operation Desert Strike was a military operation by the United States Armed Forces against Iraq that occurred in September 1996. The name is based on the US name for the Second Gulf War , Desert Storm . The operation involved warships and fighter planes from the United States Navy, as well as bombers and fighters from the United States Air Force .
prehistory
On August 31, 1996, the Iraqi army attacked the city of Hewlêr , located in the Kurdish Autonomous Region in northern Iraq and held by the Kurdistan Patriotic Union . The army, supported by tank grenadiers of the Republican Guard , took the city and handed it over to the Kurdish Democratic Party . The United States Central Command declared the attack a threat to American interests in the Arabian Peninsula and began planning a retaliatory attack.
The attack on Hewlêr was a violation of UN Resolution 688, which criminalized reprisals against the Kurdish minority in Iraq.
attack
The attacks on Iraq began on September 3, and they were mainly directed against the military infrastructure in the country. The USS Laboon (DDG-58) and USS Shiloh (CG-67) shot down the first BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles that morning . In addition, B-52 Stratofortresses launched airborne AGM-86 cruise missiles . The B-52s had taken off from Barksdale Air Force Base , landed at Guams Andersen Air Force Base, and were escorted on final approach by Navy F-14 Tomcats disembarking from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) . Just one day later, 17 more Tomahawk were fired from the USS Russell (DDG-59) , USS Hewitt (DD-966) and USS Jefferson City (SSN-759), as well as the Laboon . The USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was withdrawn from the Adriatic Sea and relocated to the Persian Gulf as soon as possible.
In the next few weeks, additional F-117A Nighthawk and F-16CJ Fighting Falcon aircraft were relocated to the Gulf. In addition, the no-fly zone in southern Iraq (monitored in Operation Southern Watch ) was expanded from the 32nd parallel to the 33rd.
In December 1998, Operation Desert Fox was followed by another bombardment of Iraqi targets after the destruction of Iraqi chemical weapons had stalled.
See also
Back in 1993, on the night of June 26th to 27th, President Clinton ordered a retaliatory strike in which US warships fired 23 Tomahawk missiles into downtown Baghdad.