Posted on 03/03/2003 9:09:59 AM PST by areafiftyone
American B-52 bombers have begun arriving in Britain, as Iraq claims six civilians were killed and 15 others injured in the latest round of US and British air raids inside the no-fly zone.
The last time the bombers were stationed on British soil was for the attacks on Yugoslavia four years ago.
Once again the long-range B-52s are based at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
The first of the huge jets landed just before noon on Monday. About an hour earlier, what appeared to be a U-2 spy plane had taken off. Two transporters aircraft are also at the base.
British military sources say a large group of US warplanes is due in Britain this week, including 14 B-52s.
Peace campaigners witnessed the arrival of the bombers. One commented: "It gives you a feeling like a stone in your throat and an even bigger stone in your heart. This may as well be American soil here."
In the no-fly zones in Iraq, British and American pilots have been launching new raids on Iraqi defences.
Iraq claims that six civilians died and 15 were injured in one of the raids on the city of Basra located in the southern no-fly zone.
Senior Pentagon officials say the strikes have been on ground-to-ground missile systems and multiple launch rockets, which could be used against coalition troops invading Iraq.
But Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon insisted to the Commons that the RAF's planes were acting "entirely in self-defence" within international law.
US and British warplanes have patrolled the northern and southern zones since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. They were set up to protect Kurds and Shia Muslims from persecution.
Officially, the pilots' missions are defensive, attacking surface-to-air missile sites and aircraft in response to Iraqi hostilities.
Experts say an increase in the raids last year heralded America's determination to blitz Saddam's air defences in preparation for war.
Ministry of Defence and US Central Command officials insisted that the additional raids were in response to increased Iraqi aggression against their aircraft.
But analysts pointed to an apparent intention to destroy Iraq's air defences piece by piece, including anything which could be used against an invasion force.
I was out at the West Georgia (Carrollton) airport years ago doing a cross-country - some time in the 70s, and as I hung around waiting for the gas truck I looked into a nearby hangar and saw a Gooney Bird with its wings off. I asked somebody what was going on and he said, "Oh, it's just having its 50,000 mile check!" (btw for you non-pilots, that's a LOT. Probably the rough equivalent of 200k on a car. And if your motor quits, you don't get to just pull over to the side of the road!)
I met one of the DuPonts who had a DC-3 completely refurbished from the ground up and flew around the Caribbean in it. That plane would fly into just about any strip in the Caribbean (except the one at Saba, which you have to be a little nutty even to fly a small Cessna into).
I never flew anything near that big . . .
LOL, maybe that is why they are called BUFFS.
Actually, I thought it was big ugly fat F---ers, but I could be wrong.
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