1998 bombing of Iraq

Operation Desert Fox
Part of the prelude to the Iraq War
A Tomahawk cruise missile is fired from an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer during Operation Desert Fox in December 1998
Location	Iraq
Commanded by	Bill Clinton William Cohen Anthony Zinni Tony Blair George Robertson Michael Boyce
Date	16–19 December 1998
Executed by	United States Armed Forces  Royal Air Force
Outcome	Coalition military success[1] Politically inconclusive[1] Much of Iraqi military infrastructure destroyed Iraq bars weapon inspectors from returning Iraq begins shooting at British and American planes in the Iraqi no-fly zones
Casualties	242–1,400 Iraqi soldiers killed or wounded all targets were destroyed or suffered varying levels of damage

The 1998 bombing of Iraq (code-named Operation Desert Fox) was a major four-day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets from 16 to 19 December 1998, by the United States and the United Kingdom. On 16 December 1998, Bill Clinton announced that he had ordered strikes against Iraq. The strikes were launched as a result of Iraq's failure to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions and its interference with United Nations Special Commission inspectors who were looking for weapons of mass destruction. The inspectors had been sent in 1997 and were repeatedly refused access to certain sites, this used by the United States to begin military action.

The operation was a major flare-up in the Iraq disarmament crisis. The stated goal of the cruise missile and bombing attacks was to strike military and security targets in Iraq that contributed to its ability to produce, store, maintain, and deliver weapons of mass destruction. The bombing campaign had been anticipated earlier in the year and incurred criticism in the U.S. and abroad.^[2] Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates initially announced they would deny the U.S. military the use of local bases for the purpose of air strikes against Iraq.^[3]

The operation was criticized by Clinton's detractors, accusing him of using the bombing to direct attention away from the ongoing impeachment proceedings against him.