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Exodus of planes to Iran to save Saddam’s air force?
RIYADH. Feb 12 : The nearly ISO Iraqi aircraft which have fled to Iran were flown by junior pilots in an apparently organized exodus to save the cream of Saddam Hussein's Air Force. US military officers said on Monday, reports AFP.
The officers, who requested anonymity, largely dismissed any potential threat from the 121 Iraqi jet fighters and 26 transport aircraft flown to Iran since the war began on January 17.
One officer, asked by a reporter about the possibility of a massive air ktrikc by the Iraqi warplanes from Iran, laughed off such a scenario.
"A one-time kamikaze strike?" he said. "You give the Iraqi air force guys a hell of a lot more credit than 1 do. They just haven’t shown that kind of gumption so far."
The US officer said the dash to safety by the Iraqi warplanes. including many "high-value" Mirage F-ls. Mig-29s and Mlg-25s. did not appear to be a large-scale defeefion.
"I’ve never really felt like it waa defection. It was a planted sort of thing." he said. "It's our contention that he (Mr.Hussein) Is moving the aircraft there to preserve his fleet for whatever regime survives after the war."
The Iraqi air force had "around 600" planes at the start of the war. the officer said. US military officials have said that 36 fixed-wing planes have been downed in dogfights and more than 100 were likely destroyed in hardened concrete shelters.
The officer described any potential threat from the Iraqi planes as "minimal", for political and military reasons but also because they do not appear to be receiving the delicate maintenance they require.
Iran has declared itself neutral in the war and has said the Iraqi planes would remain grounded during the conflict.
But the officer said US forces would remain on alert, despite the Iranian pledge.
"There's always a threat when you've got combat aircraft in a country that's never been known to be particularly friendly to us on the flank of
our fleet tn the Persian Oulf,' lie said.
"1 would say that the threat Is there but it's certainly not one at the same level that we would assume if the Iranians were openly cooperating with the Iraqis." he said.
The officer said Teheran "may have been a little surprised at the large numbers of (Iraqi Aircraft) they're getting.'
He said "there's been a wide, wide dispersal" of the Iraqi planes in Iran, in the east, west and north. They're all over Iran, everywhere.'
it'S almost as it these aircraft flew into bases that the Iranians didn't really want them to go to and now they're dispersing them." he said.
Some Iraqi planes arc in Iranian shelters "but by and large they're sitting out on the tarmac on the sides of runways." he said, adding that some have been moved from one base to another, apparently by Iraqi pilots.
"It's almost as if 12 aircraft came into a base, the Iranians decided we really can't keep more than four here, send these other six over here, these other two over here, let's spread it out a little bit." he said.
The officer also said "we don't see him (Mr.Hussein) sending his best pilots out with these aircraft.”
"It seems to us that he's taking his most junior pilots to get these aircraft out." he said.
"He's keeping his best pilots for may be that surge once the ground war begins, may be he's going to try to interdict one big major Allied air strike to make a point before he decides to call it quits, who knows?" he said.
The officer said a number of Indications pointed to inexperienced Iraqi pilots flying the planes to Iran.
"There's a variety of things that point to this." he said. "Everything from parking the-m on lamp poles to flipping them upside down on streets."
"He cracked an inordinate number of them up bringing them into Iran." he said.
There are a couple of instances where we shot these guys down when they were going low and fast and they definitely had to know they had been locked on (by US warplanes) and they didn't go into their proper evasive tactics.” he said.
The officer said the remaining "several hundred" planes In Iraq's Air Force were being moved around the Iraqi coun-
tryside like a "shell game".
He also said the flight to North Africa by several Iraqi
passenger planes appeared to be an attempt to save the commercial fleet.