Iraq:
Eclipse observation camp bombed

US warplanes operating from bases in Turkey fired missiles into a 
fourth-century Christian monastery in the so-called "no fly zone" of 
Nineveh province in northern Iraq on August 10. The University in the 
northern Iraqi city of Mosul had set up a campsite at the monastery, 
located in the northern mountains, to enable astronomers invited from 
Syria, Egypt and Libya to view the millennium's last total solar 
eclipse.

A number of people were killed by the US bombing and others were wounded. 
The US Air Force's European Command promptly put out a standard release 
saying US planes had bombed "two Iraqi communication centres" near Mosul 
"after being fired on by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery".

The good news was that "all aircraft charged with monitoring the no-fly 
zone over northern Iraq returned safely".

The "no-fly zones" were established by US fiat after the Gulf War. They are 
not supported by any UN resolution or Security Council decision.

Bombing raids by US and British planes on targets in northern and  southern 
Iraq now occur on a daily basis. They have a three-fold purpose: 
destabilising the Iraqi regime, destroying the country's air defences, and 
softening up Western public opinion to accept an air war in Iraq in 
anticipation of moves to partition the country.