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More info from BBC News yesterday:
**************************************************
Last month's US and UK air strikes on Iraq killed up to
1,600 members of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard,
the Pentagon says.
Several key individuals in the Iraqi leadership structure
are also dead, officials say.
The bombing is also said to have destroyed equipment
used to maintain and repair Iraq's military missile
capability.
General Henry H Shelton, chairman of the American joint
chiefs of staff, was giving the most detailed briefing
about
the damage which he says was inflicted on the Iraqi
military by operation Desert Fox - the four-day air
bombardment of Iraq.
He said that between 600
and 1,600 members of the
Republican Guard could have
been killed. But he was
forced to admit that his
estimate was based on
unconfirmed reports from a
variety of sources.
He said it was difficult to
determine exactly how many
people died.
The Pentagon also
suggested that the structural damage inflicted on the
Iraqi military machine was far more severe than was first
thought and that 85% of targets had been struck and
damaged significantly.
There was also a response to newspaper reports that an
American spy had been sent into Iraq in March as part of
the United Nations weapons inspectorate.
The Pentagon said that the US military had not used
intelligence specifically gathered by UN weapons
inspectors.
______________________________________________________
Harriet Griffin
Environmental Change Unit
University of Oxford
5 South Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3UB
United Kingdom
Phone: ++ 44 (0)1865 281210
Fax: ++ 44 (0) 1865 281202
E-mail: harriet.griffin@ecu.ox.ac.uk
______________________________________________________
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