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Iraqi helicopters cross no-fly zone, land at border
April 22, 1997
Web posted at: 5:07 a.m. EDT (0907 GMT)BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi helicopters have arrived at Iraq's border with Saudi Arabia to pick up Muslims returning from the annual hajj pilgrimage the official Iraqi News Agency said Tuesday.
The move defies U.S. warnings not to make the flights.
The flights left at 0300 GMT en route to the Iraq-Saudi border, said officials from the Information Ministry, who spoke under customary rules of anonymity.
After Iraq announced plans Monday to make the flights, the United States urged Iraq to stay out of the no-fly zone or face unspecified retaliation.
"We will respond appropriately, but we're not going to shoot down civilian helicopters," presidential press secretary Mike McCurry said in Washington.
It was unclear how many helicopters were sent into the no-fly zone. Some reporters were invited along on the trip.
Following the American statement, Iraq issued a counter- warning, carried by the state-run Iraq News Agency, saying any U.S. action threatening the aircraft or the pilgrims "will be met with the suitable response to deter aggression."
The news agency said Monday the helicopters would ferry "sick and exhausted" Muslim pilgrims from the border. It did not say how many aircraft would be involved or give the number of the pilgrims.
Zone declared after Gulf War
Western allies set up the no-fly zone after defeating Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Western forces patrol the skies over southern Iraq to protect Shiite Muslims from Iraqi reprisals for a failed rebellion.
The zone was extended in September to punish President Saddam Hussein for sending his army into northern Iraq to support one Kurdish faction against another. It now covers an area stretching from the southern suburbs of Baghdad down to Iraq's borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The decision to use helicopters to ferry home the pilgrims was announced after a meeting Monday of the Revolutionary Command Council and the leadership of the ruling Baath Party -- Iraq's highest bodies. Saddam chaired the meeting.
On April 9, Saddam challenged a U.N. embargo against international fights by sending an Iraqi Airways jet carrying 104 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, site of the holiest shrine in Islam.
The embargo is part of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed in 1990 for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The helicopter flights would violate the sanctions as well.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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- Iraqi choppers to defy no-fly zone to ferry pilgrims - April 22, 1997
- Iraq defies U.N. with pilgrim flight to Saudi Arabia - April 9, 1997
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