US planes rain 88.000 tons of Bombs

From the Baghdad Observer, No. 8309. 22 January 1995.

On January 17. 1991, the US and its allies started a 42-day round-the-clock air and missile bombardment of lraq targeting civilian and service facilities of vital importance to people's every day life. The aim was to destroy the country's infrastructure and push Iraq back to pre-industrial age. Target hit were hundreds of kilometres away from the battlefront.

Before the assault was over the US planes flew more than 109.000 sorties raining 88.000 tons of bombs, the equivalent of seven Hiroshimas, killing indiscriminately across the country.

The allied planes bombed and attacked power stations, water and waste-water treatment plants, bridges and irrigation and agricultural projects. Even churches, mosques, hospitals and schools did not escape the damage.

According to surveys and documents, the US and allied forces destroyed 676 schools and educational departments in Baghdad and the provinces, some 38 out of the 676 schools were completely destroyed.

Missile and bombs also hit and damaged 21 kindergartens, eight universities and eleven technical institutes. Moreover, the allied aircraft attacked and damaged some 30 cultural properties including libraries, cultural centres, six museums and archaeological sites in Baghdad and the provinces.

The planes also raided and damaged six broadcasting stations, 12 TV stations and five alectronic and relay TV transmission stations.

As regards worship places, the enemy planes attacked 56 mosques and churches, some 25 mosques out of the 56 are in Baghdad while others are in Nineveh, Basra, Saladdin, Anbar, Muthanna, Qadissiya and Diyala provinces.

Meanwhile, allied planes destroyed some 133 bridges all over the country all of them were reconstructed by the Ministry of Housing and Construction.

The Ministry, morover, reconstructed more than 500 buildings damaged by allied bombardment. The buildings including 27 halls and stations of TV and Radio transmission, premises of five telephone exchanges and premises of eleven hospitals and Ministry of Justice, headquarters of Iraq's Command of the Arab Ba'th Socialist Party, premises of the Conference Palace and the Cabinet.

The Ministry also rebuilt 300 buildings of departments of other ministries in addition to repairing some 480.000 kilometres of main roads and motor-ways.

Over the period from March 1991 lo 1994, the Ministry executed 1098 projects including reconstruction projects and other projects at a cost of eight billion of Iraqi dinars.