Bombing of Iraq ( 1998 ) The December 1998 bombing of Iraq ( code - named Operation Desert Fox ) was a major four - day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets from December 16 , 1998 , to December 19 , 1998 , by the United States and United Kingdom . The contemporaneous justification for the strikes was Iraq ' s failure to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions as well as their interference with United Nations Special Commission inspectors . The operation was a major flare - up in the Iraq disarmament crisis . The stated goal of the cruise missile and bombing attacks was to strike military and security targets in Iraq that contribute to Iraq ' s ability to produce , store , maintain and deliver weapons of mass destruction . The bombing campaign had been anticipated since February 1998 and incurred wide - ranging criticism and support , at home and abroad . Saudi Arabia , Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates initially announced they would deny U . S . military the use of local bases for the purpose of air strikes against Iraq . It became one of the roots of the 2003 invasion of Iraq which resulted in the deposition of the Ba ' athist Iraqi government . Background . On October 31 , 1998 U . S . President Bill Clinton had signed into law H . R . 4655 , the Iraq Liberation Act . The new Act appropriated funds for Iraqi opposition groups in the hope of removing Saddam Hussein from power and replacing his regime with a democracy . The Act also said that : Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to the use of United States Armed Forces ( except as provided in section 4 ( a ) ( 2 ) ) in carrying out this Act . Section 4 ( a ) ( 2 ) states : The President is authorized to direct the drawdown of defense articles from the stocks of the Department of Defense , defense services of the Department of Defense , and military education and training for [ Iraqi democratic opposition ] organizations . " Degrading " , not eliminating . Clinton administration officials said the aim of the mission was to " degrade " Iraq ' s ability to manufacture and use weapons of mass destruction , not to eliminate it . Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked about the distinction while the operation was going on : The main targets of the bombing included weapons research and development installations , air defense systems , weapon and supply depots , and the barracks and command headquarters of Saddam ' s elite Republican Guard . Also , one of Saddam ' s lavish presidential palaces came under attack . Iraqi air defense batteries , unable to target the American and British jets , began to blanket the sky with near random bursts of flak fire . The air strikes continued unabated however , and cruise missile barrages launched by naval vessels added to the bombs dropped by the planes . By the fourth night , most of the specified targets had been damaged or destroyed and the Operation was deemed a success and the air strikes ended . Military operations . U . S . Navy aircraft from Carrier Air Wing Three ( CVW 3 ) , flying from , Carrier Air Wing Eleven ( CVW 11 ) , flying from , and Patrol Squadron Four ( PATRON FOUR ) , flew combat missions from the Persian Gulf in support of ODF . Of significance , the operation marked the first time that women flew combat sorties as U . S . Navy strike fighter pilots and the first combat use of the U . S . Air Force ' s B - 1B bomber from the 28th Air Expeditionary Group stationed at Thumrait Air Base , Sultanate of Oman . Ground units included the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit ( Special Operations Capable ) , of which 2nd Battalion 4th Marines served as the ground combat element ; based from Amphibious Ready Group , which included . The U . S . Air Force sent several sorties of F - 16 ' s from the 34th Fighter Squadron , and 522nd Fighter Squadron into Iraq to fly night missions in support of Operation Desert Fox ; they were based at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base , Kuwait . On the second night of Operation Desert Fox , aircrews flying 12 B - 52s took off from the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and launched 74 conventional air launched cruise missiles ( CALCMs ) . The missiles found their mark striking multiple Iraqi targets including six of President Saddam Hussein ' s palaces , several Republican Guard Barracks , and the Ministries of Defense and Military Industry . The following evening , two more B - 52 crews launched 16 more CALCMs . Over a two - night period aircrews from the 2nd and 5th Bomb Wings launched a total of 90 CALCMs . The B - 1 bomber also made its combat debut by striking at Republican Guard targets . Also on Dec . 17 , USAF aircraft based in Kuwait participated , as did British Royal Air Force Tornado aircraft . The British contribution totaled 15 percent of the sorties flown in DESERT FOX . By December 19 , U . S . and British aircraft had struck 97 targets , and Secretary of Defense William Cohen claimed the operation was a success . Supported by Secretary Cohen , as well as United States Central Command commander General Anthony C . Zinni and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Henry H . Shelton , President Bill Clinton declared " victory " in Operation DESERT FOX . In total , the 70 - hour campaign saw U . S . forces strike 85 percent of their targets , 75 percent of which were considered " highly effective " strikes . More than 600 sorties were flown by more than 300 combat and support aircraft , and 600 air dropped munitions were employed , including 90 air launched cruise missiles and 325 Tomahawk land attack missiles ( TLAM ) . Operation DESERT FOX inflicted serious damage to Iraq ' s missile development program , although its effects on any WMD program were not clear . Nevertheless , Operation DESERT FOX was the largest strike against Iraq since the 1990 - 1991 Persian Gulf War , until the commencement of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM . Reaction . In reaction to the attack , three of five permanent members of the UN Security Council ( Russia , France , and the People ' s Republic of China ) called for lifting of the eight - year oil embargo on Iraq , recasting or disbanding UNSCOM , and firing its chairman , Australian diplomat Richard Butler . Criticism . Accusations of U . S . interference in the U . N . inspection process . Iraq stopped cooperating with the U . N . special commission in the first month of the year , but diplomacy by Kofi Annan brought fresh agreement and new modalities for the inspection of sensitive sites . Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz had earlier accused UNSCOM officials of acting as spies for the United States , charges later supported by Scott Ritter and Bill Tierney . In a 2005 interview Ritter criticized the Clinton administration ' s use of a blocked inspection of a Ba ' ath party headquarters to justify the bombing . Public perception is that the Iraqis were confrontational and blocking the work of the inspectors . In 98 % of the inspections , the Iraqis did everything we asked them to because it dealt with disarmament . However when we got into issues of sensitivity , such as coming close to presidential security installations , Iraqis raised a flag and said , “ Time out . We got a C . I . A . out there that ' s trying to kill our president and we ' re not very happy about giving you access to the most sensitive installations and the most sensitive personalities in Iraq . ” So we had these modalities , where we agreed that if we came to a site and the Iraqis called it ‘ sensitive , ’ we go in with four people . In 1998 , the inspection team went to a site . It was the Baath Party headquarters , like going to Republican Party headquarters or Democratic Party headquarters . The Iraqis said , “ You can ' t come in – you can come in . Come on in . ” The inspectors said , “ The modalities no longer apply . ” The Iraqis said , “ If you don ' t agree to the modalities , we can ' t support letting you in , ” and the Iraqis wouldn ' t allow the inspections to take place . Bill Clinton said , “ This proves the Iraqis are not cooperating , ” and he ordered the inspectors out . But you know the United States government ordered the inspectors to withdraw from the modalities without conferring with the Security Council . It took Iraqis by surprise . Iraqis were saying , “ We ' re playing by the rules , why aren ’ t you ? If you ' re not going play by the rules , then it ’ s a game that we don ' t want to participate in . ” Bill Clinton ordered the inspectors out . Saddam didn ' t kick them out . However , in his 1999 book " Endgame " Ritter explained that he was the one who had originally pushed for the fateful inspection of the Ba ' ath party headquarters over the doubts of his boss Richard Butler ( diplomat ) and also planned to use 37 inspectors . It was temporarily cancelled due to the fact that Iraq broke off cooperation in August 1998 : In early 1999 it was revealed that the CIA , as well as possibly MI6 , had planted agents in the UNSCOM teams , leading the UN to admit that " UNSCOM had directly facilitated the creation of an intelligence collection system for the United States in violation of its mandate . " As part of the CIA ' s Operation Shake the Tree , run by Steve Richter of the Near East Division , a " black box " was installed at UNSCOM ' s headquarters in Baghdad to eavesdrop on Saddam ' s presidential communications network . The information collected by the agency was not shared with UNSCOM investigators . Inspectors not thrown out . The claim that UNSCOM weapons inspectors were expelled by Iraq has been repeated frequently . U . S . Secretary of State Colin Powell , in his February 5 , 2003 speech before the U . N . Security Council , called for action against Iraq and stated falsely that " Saddam Hussein forced out the last inspectors in 1998 " . The claim has appeared repeatedly in the news media . However , according to UNSCOM inspector Richard Butler himself , it was U . S . Ambassador Peter Burleigh , acting on instructions from Washington , who suggested Butler pull his team from Iraq in order to protect them from the forthcoming U . S . and British air strikes : " I received a telephone call from US Ambassador Peter Burleigh inviting me for a private conversation at the US mission . . . Burleigh informed me that on instructions from Washington it would be ' prudent to take measures to ensure the safety and security of UNSCOM staff presently in Iraq . ' . . . I told him that I would act on this advice and remove my staff from Iraq . " Facilities not known to be producing WMD . Former U . S . Army intelligence analyst William Arkin contended in his " Washington Post " column January , 1999 that the operation had less to do with WMD and more to do with destabilizing the Iraqi government . It is clear from the target list , and from extensive communications with almost a dozen officers and analysts knowledgeable about Desert Fox planning , that the U . S . - British bombing campaign was more than a reflexive reaction to Saddam Hussein ' s refusal to cooperate with UNSCOM ' s inspectors . The official rationale for Desert Fox may remain the " degrading " of Iraq ' s ability to produce weapons of mass destruction and the " diminishing " of the Iraqi threat to its neighbours . But careful study of the target list tells another story . Thirty - five of the 100 targets were selected because of their role in Iraq ' s air defense system , an essential first step in any air war , because damage to those sites paves the way for other forces and minimizes casualties all around . Only 13 targets on the list are facilities associated with chemical and biological weapons or ballistic missiles , and three are southern Republican Guard bases that might be involved in a repeat invasion of Kuwait . The heart of the Desert Fox list ( 49 of the 100 targets ) is the Iraqi regime itself : a half - dozen palace strongholds and their supporting cast of secret police , guard and transport organizations . According to Department of Defense personnel with whom Arkin spoke , Central Command chief Anthony Zinni insisted that the U . S . only attack biological and chemical sites that " had been identified with a high degree of certainty . " And the reason for the low number of targets , said Arkin , was because intelligence specialists " could not identify actual weapons sites with enough specificity to comply with Zinni ' s directive . " Dr . Brian Jones was the top intelligence analyst on chemical , biological and nuclear weapons at the Ministry of Defence . He told British Broadcasting " Panorama " in 2004 that Defence Intelligence Staff in Whitehall did not have a high degree of confidence " any " of the facilities identified , targeted and bombed in Operation Desert Fox were active in producing weapons of mass destruction . Jones ' testimony is supported by the former Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence , John Morrison , who informed the same program that , before the operation had ended , DIS came under pressure to validate a prepared statement to be delivered by then Prime Minister Tony Blair , declaring military activity an unqualified success . Large - scale damage assessment takes time , responded Morrison , therefore his department declined to sign up to a premature statement . " After Desert Fox , I actually sent a note round to all the analysts involved congratulating them on standing firm in the face of , in some cases , individual pressure to say things that they knew weren ' t true " . Later on , after careful assessment and consideration , Defence Intelligence Staff determined that the bombing had not been all that effective . Within days of speaking out on the program , Morrison was informed by former New Labour cabinet minister Ann Taylor that he was to lose his job as Chief Investigator to the Intelligence and Security Committee . The Duelfer Report concluded in 2004 that " Iraq ' s WMD program was essentially destroyed in 1991 and Saddam ended Iraq ' s nuclear program after the 1991 Gulf War . " Distraction from Clinton impeachment scandal . Some critics of the Clinton administration expressed concern over the timing of Operation Desert Fox . The four - day bombing campaign occurred at the same time the U . S . House of Representatives was conducting the impeachment hearing of President Clinton . Clinton was impeached on December 19 , the last day of the bombing campaign . A few months earlier , similar criticism was levelled during Operation Infinite Reach , wherein missile strikes were ordered against suspected terrorist bases in Sudan and Afghanistan , on August 20 . The missile strikes began three days after Clinton was called to testify before a grand jury during the Lewinsky scandal and his subsequent nationally televised address later that evening in which Clinton admitted having an inappropriate relationship . The Operation Infinite Reach attacks became known as " Monica ' s War " among TV news people , due to the timing . ABC - TV announced to all stations that there would be a special report following Lewinsky ' s testimony before Congress , then the special report was pre - empted by the report of the missile attacks . The combination of the timing of that attack and Operation Desert Fox led to accusations of a " Wag the Dog " situation . Criticism of the extent of the operation . Other critics , such as former U . S . Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the attacks did not go far enough : " I would be amazed if a three - day campaign made a decisive difference , " Kissinger said just after the operation ended . [ W ] e did not do , in my view , enough damage to degrade it [ Iraq ' s programs for weapons of mass destruction ] for six months . It doesn ' t make any significant difference because in six months to a year they will be back to where they are and we cannot keep repeating these attacks . [ . . . ] At the end of the day what will be decisive is what the situation in the Middle East will be two to three years from now . If Saddam is still there , if he ' s rearming , if the sanctions are lifted , we will have lost , no matter what spin we put on it . There were dozens of Iraqi civilians killed by missiles that missed their targets , possibly as many or more Iraqi military , and no U . S . or British casualties . While the bombing was ongoing , the Vanguards of Conquest issued a communique to Islamist groups calling for attacks against the United States " for its arrogance " in bombing Iraq . According to Charles Duelfer , after the bombing the Iraqi ambassador to the UN told him , " If we had known that was all you would do , we would have ended the inspections long ago . "