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249 美国将继续对伊拉克施加压力
US: Pressure on Iraq to Continue After Attempted Shoot Down
Dale Gavlak
Washington
26 Jul 2001 21:03 UTC
The Pentagon is calling Iraq's attempt to shoot down a U.S. spy plane over its southern no-fly zone "reckless and 1)aggressive behavior." The Bush Administration has 2)vowed to keep the pressure on Iraq.
The Pentagon says Tuesday's attack against a 3)coalition aircraft was not the first by Iraq. A spokesman, Rear Admiral Craig Quigley said he could not provide any details.
But a senior defense official says what is believed to have been an unguided surface-to-air missile just missed a U-2 spy plane. Such a missile could be fired without the benefit of targeting 4)radar on the ground.
Admiral Quigley had no comment when asked whether the attack signaled a shift in Iraq's 5)tactics by targeting slower moving monitoring aircraft rather than 6)warplanes that 7)patrol the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq. "It just continues the pattern of Iraqi aggressiveness of shooting down a coalition aircraft," Admiral Quigley said. "Saddam has had a long-standing goal of downing a coalition aircraft by any means he can. Why do we have a northern watch and a southern watch? It is to stop Saddam from going after his own people and 8)threatening his neighbors."
Admiral Quigley also would not comment on what the U.S. pilot saw or felt from the impact of the missile. That, he says, would 9)compromise U.S. military intelligence. But he says the Pentagon is closely examining the incident and may consider making coalition flights less 10)predictable.
"We are assessing what, or if there should be, any 11)modifications to our patterns of flight activity-both tactical and strategic aircraft. We will 12)adapt if we need to, but that is still under consideration," he said.
Admiral Quigley says the United States will respond to what he calls Iraq's aggression in a manner, time and place of its choosing. He said a U.S. strike in February against Iraq's monitoring system had disrupted Baghdad's ability to detect patrol aircraft. But he added that the Pentagon does not think that strike permanently disabled Iraq's capabilities.
(1) aggressive[5E^resIv]adj.好斗的, 敢做敢为的,侵略性的
(2) vow[vaJ]n.誓约v.宣誓, 立誓, 发誓
(3) coalition[kEJE5lIF(E)n]n.合并, 接合, 联合
(4) radar[5reIdB:(r)]n.雷达, 电波探测器
(5) tactics[5tAktIks]n.战术, 策略
(6) warplane[ `wR:pleIn ]n.[军]军用机
(7) patrol[pE5trEJl]v.出巡, 巡逻n.巡逻
(8) threaten[5Wret(E)n]vt.恐吓, 威胁, 预示(危险)
(9) compromise[5kRmprEmaIz]n.妥协, 折衷v.妥协, 折衷, 危及...的安全
(10) predictable[prI5dIktEb(E)l]adj.可预言的
(11) modification[mRdIfI5keIF(E)n]n.更改, 修改, 修正
(12) adapt[E5dApt]vt.使适应, 改编
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