Cruise missile strikes on Iraq (1996)
| Operation Desert Strike | |||||||
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| Part of the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War and the | |||||||
 The USS Laboon (DDG 58) launches Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense targets, 3 September 1996. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 US-led coalition |
 Iraqi Republic
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Bill Clinton Anthony Zinni
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Saddam Hussein
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United States victory
The 1996 cruise missile strikes on Iraq, codenamed Operation Desert Strike, were joint United States Navy-Air Force strikes conducted on 3 September against air defense targets in southern Iraq, in response to an Iraqi offensive in the Kurdish Civil War.
On 31 August 1996, the Iraqi military launched its biggest offensive since 1991 against the city of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. This attack stoked American fears that the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein intended to launch a genocidal campaign against the Kurds similar to the campaigns of 1988 and 1991. It also placed Saddam in clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 forbidding repression of Iraq's ethnic minorities.
The strikes were initially planned to be by aircraft launched from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), including aircraft from Fighter Squadron 11 (VF-11) and Fighter Squadron 31 (VF-31), both operating F-14D Tomcats; Electronic Attack Squadron 139 (VAQ-139), operating EA-6B Prowlers; Attack Squadron 196 (VA-196), operating A-6E Intruders equipped with the Target Recognition and Attack Multi-Sensor (TRAM) system; Anti-Submarine Squadron 35 (VS-35) flying S-3B Vikings; and Strike Fighter Squadron 113 (VFA-113) and Strike Fighter Squadron 25 (VFA-25), both operating F/A-18 Hornets. However the strike was instead launched by U.S. Navy surface warships and U.S. Air Force bombers, using cruise missiles.
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