The USA and Great Britain attack Iraqi civil objects from air bases in Kuwait

America and Great Britain have already made 35 sorties on Iraq

The head of the White House does not need a special permission from the US Congress concerning the strike on Iraq. The Washington Post wrote that this was the conclusion, to which George Bush’s lawyers came.

President’s lawyers stated that the Congress had already issued such a permission in 1991 to the father of the incumbent American president. Baghdad is charged with non-execution of UN resolutions, like it was eleven years ago. The newspaper advised that the military strike against Hussein’s regime was practically inevitable. Nevertheless, the leading American newspaper did not possess the complete information on the subject. The strike has already started. So far, it is an exercise. International observers say that they have increased in their frequency lately. Four sorties on Iraq have already taken place. Reuters reported with reference to a military spokesman for the Iraqi military department that there were eight people killed and nine wounded as a result of the strike on the southern area of Iraq. The attack was performed on Sunday by American and British aviation.

All the killed and injured people were reportedly civilians. Objects of the bombing were civil and military objects on the outskirts of Basra, in the south of the country. An Iraqi news agency reported that American and British aviation had performed 35 sorties from the airbases in Kuwait.

American military men say that the planes attacked the radar station of the Iraqi anti-missile defense. It was added that the attack happened during a regular patrolling process. Americans declared that the radar station was imperiling the planes of the coalition. As usual, the representatives of the coalition “were trying to minimize the number of casualties.” Rather a standard situation, indeed.

It is just a question of time for the USA to move from the “military exercise” onto the real bombing. We have to say that it is a question of very short time indeed. NTVRu.com exposed the data of another opinion poll, which was devoted to America’s operation against Iraq.

Pursuant to the results of the poll, only 53% of Americans support the USA’s operation in Iraq. This index has had a big drop, since three-fourth of respondents supported the strike before. Only 20% of American population agrees with Washington’s military operation without the participation of the allies.

Meanwhile, European leaders are out there saying something too. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in his interview to a German television channel that the war with Baghdad might have a negative influence on the struggle with international terrorism. Schroeder also added that the German army must not take part in the intervention against Iraq.

Intervention is rather a strong word for the German chancellor. Schroeder was releasing his statements during the television debate with his competitor in the up-coming elections, Edmund Stoiber. Furthermore, the coming elections are gong to be the first in German history. Anything can happen there in this respect.

And the last thing. Western news agencies reported that Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri arrived in China with an official visit. The negotiations with China’s leadership will basically cover the issue of relations between Baghdad and the UN. The parties will also discuss the issue of the return of military inspectors to Iraq.

Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov