Word: iraq
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...IRAQ: Trigger-Happy Tragedy...
...helicopters sliced through the blue skies over northern Iraq last Thursday morning, a U.S. Air Force AWACS reconnaissance plane picked them up on radar. The AWACS crew immediately radioed a pair of U.S. F-15C fighters and asked them to take a closer look. Though there had been no reported violations of the no-fly zone over northern Iraq since January 1993, Iraqi helicopters had been a problem in the past, when Saddam Hussein used them to suppress the Kurdish rebellion that erupted after the Gulf War ended in 1991. The crews of the F-15Cs twice flew past...
...horrified Pentagon officials quickly discovered, however, the two / choppers were not Hinds but U.S. Black Hawks. On board were 21 allied military and civilian officials, including 15 Americans and five Kurds; all of them perished. They had been on their way to meet with Kurdish leaders in the northern Iraq town of Salahuddin, part of the safe haven created for the Kurds after the Gulf War. The crews of all five aircraft in the tragedy were slated to attend a rehearsal one day earlier in which they had reviewed flight routes, radio frequencies and the timing of Thursday's mission...
Twenty-one United Nations personnel, including 15 Americans, and five of the Kurds they were trying to help died Thursday after two helicopters were mistakenly shot down by U.S. fighter planes over the "no-fly" zone in northern Iraq. Defense Department officials said Friday that the jets signaled the helicopters electronically, but did not receive a response identifying them as "friendly...
Saturday: Was unanimously elected to a 10-year term as dictator of the Liberal Democratic Party during a Moscow party conference; guests included a German neofascist and a delegation from Iraq...