Officials now say that the strikes may not have been as successful as was first portrayed, and that many bomblets may have missed targets. In one of the most aggressive attacks in a decade since the Persian Gulf War, U.S. and British warplanes launched the air attack last Friday on targets on the outskirts of Iraq's capital. Downtown Baghdad was not hit. The official numbers are classified, the sources said, and so the full number of missed targets is unclear.
Bomblets fall in an established pattern or footprint.
In the majority of the dropped bomblets, each of these patterns missed their aim point by exactly the same distance, the sources said. Sources said the errors may have been caused by an error in programming the software that controls the weaponry. The Web Copyright 2001 ABC News Internet Ventures.