Saddam vows revenge as strikes continue

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, far left, holds an audience with unidentified members of the Al-Jubour tribe from Al-Shargat, in northern Iraq, at an undisclosed location yesterday. President Hussein vowed yesterday to retaliate for the damage and casualties that U.S. warplanes inflicted near Basra, southern Iraq, according to the official Iraqi News Agency. As Iraqis mourned their dead yesterday from apparently misfired American missiles in southern Iraq killing 11 and injuring 59, three U.S. aircraft opened fire in the Iraqi north at radar defenses that military officials said threatened them.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Vowing that his people's blood ''will not be shed in vain,'' President Saddam Hussein threatened yesterday to retaliate against the United States - even as American planes attacked Iraq yet again.

Three U.S. aircraft fired missiles and precision-guided bombs near the northern city of Mosul, a day after Iraq said errant U.S. missiles killed 11 people and injured 59 in and around the southern city of Basra.

Yesterday's strikes by a Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler and an F-15E strike aircraft patrolling the northern ''no-fly'' zone were to neutralize threats by Iraqi radar or anti-aircraft defenses, the U.S. military said. No details of the strikes were available.

In Washington, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said President Clinton has told the U.S. military to respond more aggressively to Iraqi challenges in the ''no-fly'' zones, set up to protect Iraqi rebels from Saddam's forces.

Saddam, meanwhile, stepped up his defiance.

''Your blood will not be shed in vain,'' he said in a speech to commiserate with those affected by missile strikes Monday.

The developments further raised tensions in Iraq, already high since the Dec. 16-19 airstrikes by U.S. and British forces. That bombardment targeted military and communications sites following Saddam's refusal to cooperate with the U.N. commission set up to oversee the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Until the commission completes its job, the United Nations will not lift economic sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which triggered the 1991 Gulf War.

Saddam, in his speech, invoked the sacrifices of Basra's residents, who were on the front line in the Gulf War as well as Iraq's 1980-88 war with Iran. The speech was carried by the official Iraqi News Agency.

''Be patient, our beloved and brothers. Victory will be with those who are patient,'' Saddam urged the 1 million people of Basra, a city 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

''Your blood will blossom ... in the tree of freedom, resistance and victory,'' Saddam said. He did not specify what action he might take in response to the Basra attack.

One of the U.S. missiles fell Monday on Basra's working-class neighborhood of al-Jumhuriya, where officials said five people were killed and 42 were injured. Another missile hit the village of Abu Falous outside Basra, where six people reportedly died and 17 were injured. Three other missiles fell around Basra but caused no casualties, Iraqi officials said.

Residents of Al-Falous were in mourning yesterday. The sounds of prayer from a mosque filled the air. Women gathered in a house to beat their chests and wail in traditional expressions of grief.

Residents said the missile struck the house of Fadl Abbas Mansour, gouged out holes in the roof and careened into other homes. By the time it landed in a mud-filled street, two stone-walled houses had collapsed and two others were badly damaged.

Reporters who visited the village saw the 6-foot barrel of the gray missile on the street, minus its nose and tail.

Mansour, a 53-year-old fertilizer factory worker, showed reporters around his house. A bed had collapsed in one room, and in another a ceiling fan with its blades drooping hung from a beam.

Five women in Mansour's family, including two granddaughters - one 3 months old and the other 14 years - suffered cuts and bruises.

''Why shouldn't I be angry?'' he asked. ''What did I do to America to be punished like this?''

In Baghdad, Iraq's Parliament speaker accused Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of conspiring with the United States against Iraq. ''The Saudi and Kuwaiti regimes have become the head of a venomous snake,'' Saadoun Hummadi told Parliament.

He said in addition to supporting the United States, the two countries coerced other governments into adopting anti-Iraq stances at an Arab League meeting last weekend.