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U.S. Defense Sec'y Denies Plans To Bomb North Iraq 12:10 a.m. Jan 15, 1999 Eastern SEOUL (Reuters) - Secretary of Defense William Cohen said on Friday the United States would sustain its drive to contain Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but denied rumors it was planning to bomb Iraq at the end of the Muslim fasting month. ``Rumors, if repeated long enough, are sometimes treated as fact. There is no basis to the rumor about any action (to be) taken against northern Iraq following Ramadan,'' Cohen told a news conference following defense talks in South Korea. ``As we have indicated before on many, many occasions, we intend to continue our containment policy. We intend to continue to prevent him (Saddam) from posing a threat to his neighbors and attacking his neighbors or developing weapons of mass destruction capable of threatening his neighbors. That is our policy and that will remain intact. And so there is no basis to the rumor that you have just raised,'' he said in response to a question. But Cohen did not close the possibility of some preemptive U.S. British strikes against anti-aircraft missiles and radar facilities which threaten jets patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones. ``As I have indicated on several occasions in the past week, we will take whatever action is necessary to protect our pilots and those of our British friends, both in the north and the south,'' he said. ``It is a policy that will be continued.'' -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html