KUWAIT (Islamweb & Agencies) - Western forces are studying Iraq's use of ballistic missile technology to test-fire surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) last week, a senior Western defense source said on Sunday.``No one is naive, and with United Nations inspectors absent from Iraq for almost three years, Iraq is getting more and more dangerous. This latest development is being assessed,'' the source said.
The inspectors were forbidden from returning to Iraq after the United States and Britain launched the four-day Desert Fox bombing campaign against Iraqi targets in December 1998.
The source was commenting on a report in Kuwait's daily al-Rai al-Aam newspaper on Sunday.
Quoting Western defense sources, the daily said Iraq tested ''advanced'' SAMs ahead of their deployment against U.S. and British warplanes that patrol no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq.
Although the range of SAM weapons appears to fall within limits imposed on Iraq after its defeat in the Gulf War, Baghdad's foes are exploring violations of an arms import ban and looking into whether some countries are secretly abetting them, another Western defense source told Reuters.
In February, American and British warplanes launched a brief bombing campaign against Iraqi targets in retaliation for what Western officers said was increased firing at their aircraft.
The latest development is of concern to pilots patrolling the no-fly zones. ``It is no secret that Iraq is trying anything to get an aircraft down,'' a defense source said.
Washington and London set up the zones allegedly to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north of Iraq and Shi'ite Muslims in the south against possible attacks by Baghdad forces.
Air raids within the zones have become commonplace since Iraq, which does not recognize the zones, vowed in 1998 to challenge the patrols with its anti-aircraft defenses but has so far failed to down a warplane.