By Adel Darwish 

Raid on Iraq 1620GMT: 24 planes start mission- 1730GMT: Attack targets -1840GMT: Planes clear Iraqi airspace

A pentagon spokesman said they hit five command control and radar systems north of the 33 Parallel, but emphasised that non of the aircraft moved north of the line, but used missiles to fire from a distance. 
The spokesman said the Iraqis have lately shown 'signs of sophistication ' when they were switching their raiders on to fire on American and British aircraft patrolling the no fly zone. 
The spokesman wouldn't say what the British aircraft did exactly and refused to answer questions about the roles of each party. But since Britain  doesn't have the type of missiles fired by American air craft, its role was limited to drop one bomb on a target near the southern city of Basra, a British Ministry of Defence  source told Mideastnews. He added that four British aircraft, based in Kuwait took part in the operation.
In London an MOD  spokesman said the raids were in response to an increased threat to allied aircraft from Iraq's missile defences in recent weeks. The MOD later didn't rule out further attacks in the near future on Iraq. 

This is a departure from the policy carried out by the Clinton administration by collecting intelligence data and launch an attack later rather than responding to an immediate attack that happens while the aircraft are patrolling the area. This also the first time the Iraqi capital comes under attack since operation Desert Fox in December 1998.  While the Pentagon claims that the attack was outside Baghdad. Al-Jazria TV showed pictures of antiaircraft tracer fires flaring over the capital tonight. 

The 32 parallel marks the northern end of the southern no-fly zone imposed by Britain, United States, France and most of the western allies, to protect the Shia in the south from Saddam Hussein's attacks. But the Iraq and some international lawyers say such imposition is illegal and lacks the UN authorisation. Then one by one the western allies shied away from the commitment. France pulled out of the patrolling operation leaving Britain and America alone. British Members of Parliament, who were critical of Britain's involvement in 'an unclear and futile policy towards Iraq', say the no fly zone was 'illegal.' The include veteran mps like Tony Benn and Tam Dalyell, as well as left wing MPs like  Gorge Gallway who has flown recently to Iraq with humanitarian The Mps criticised the attack this evening saying it will harm British interests in the region and called upon Prime Minister Tony Blair to distance himself from America's policy. 

Strategy experts say that if the Iraqis were able to fire at Anglo-American aircraft from outside the no-fly-zone, then the whole concept of a no-fly-zone is non-sense any way. Analysts and diplomats here in London believe that the raid was ill-conceived and will back fire causing more problems to the two countries' interests in the region at a time when America's popularity among Arabs is in its lowest point as a result of the daily Israeli-Palestinian clashes. Many Arabs believe that America is not pressurizing Israeli enough to help end the violence. 

It looks like new president George Bush is putting on a display of strength to emphasis that his first priority in the region is to contain Saddam Hussein. Others believe that he was trying to finish off what his father couldn't achieve 10 years earlier.
Since Iraq has no Missiles that can reach washington DC or Manhattan there is, fighter-pilots apart, no risk to the American administration or its voters. However, the raid is not entirely cost-free. While Saddam is expected to make some excellent use of the raid in propaganda war against the west, those of us, cynical journalists, who have seen the movie ' Wag the Dog' will say this is just another fig-leaf : A president, who has come to office by a court ruling not a majority vote, is waging a war for domestic political aims assisted by his most faithful NATO ally.

The cost in Foreign Policy, an area which President Bush knows little about, seems to be much higher and it seems that the Americans didn't think it through. President Bush seems to be flexing his muscles  at a time when the United States policy in the Middle East is failing to make an impact on the very explosive situation between Israel and the Palestinians, and surly will increase, the already boiling Arab anger against America. 

But Britain is standing to lose much more than America Some former British Generals and experts warned that the attack is a public relation disaster for Britain who is normally more popular in the Middle east than her American partners. Once more it makes the Iraqi dictator, who have seen off two American presidents and most of the leaders who sought to dislodge him from power for ten year, is likely to be the winner in the game while his people go on paying the heavy price.