Operation Southern Watch
| Operation Southern Watch | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Iraqi no-fly zones conflict | |||||||
Two F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft from the Texas Air National Guard and New Jersey Air National Guard prepare to depart Prince Sultan Air Base on a patrol as part of Operation Southern Watch in 2000. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
|
United States United Kingdom France (until 1998) Saudi Arabia | Iraq | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
George H. W. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Bush | Saddam Hussein | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 5,000 | Various Iraqi air defense forces | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
29 American airmen killed and 372 Coalition personnel injured in the Khobar Towers bombing 3 RQ-1 Predator shot down |
1 MiG-25 Foxbat and 1 MiG-23 Flogger shot down 10–15 air defense systems destroyed 175+ civilians killed and 500 others wounded | ||||||
Operation Southern Watch was an air-centric military operation conducted by the United States Department of Defense from August 1992 to March 2003.
United States Central Command's Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) had the mission of monitoring and controlling the airspace south of the 32nd Parallel (extended to the 33rd Parallel in 1996) in southern and south-central Iraq during the period following the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.