U.S. JETS ON ALERT FOR ATTACK : ANY IRAQI MISSILES WILL BRING REPRISALS.

Byline: Andrew Selsky Associated Press 

U.S. warplanes roared off the deck of this aircraft carrier to patrol the skies over Iraq on Saturday, armed and ready to retaliate if they're fired at.

Cmdr. Alex Hnarakis, chief of the USS Enterprise's squadron of F-14B Tomcat jet fighters, said pilots are scoping out potential targets in case Iraq fires at U.S. planes again or takes other offensive action.

The Enterprise's planes joined others - some from a second carrier in the gulf, the USS Carl Vinson - in patrolling the ``no-fly'' zones in Iraq. The zones, where Iraq may not fly aircraft, were set up by Washington and its 1991 Persian Gulf War allies to protect Iraqi Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from Saddam Hussein's troops.

Although Defense Secretary William Perry promised a ``disproportionate'' response for an Iraqi missile attack on U.S. planes on Sept. 11, many American allies disapproved.

Iraq has an array of radar-guided surface-to-air missiles and MiG fighter planes and is capable of downing a plane.

Helicopter-borne search-and-rescue teams are ready in Kuwait to retrieve any downed Americans. Washington is also deploying a Patriot missile battery, eight radar-evading F-117 fighter-bombers and 3,000 U.S. troops to the emirate. About 300 troops arrived Saturday in Kuwait.

Cmdr. Peter Frano, leader of the ship's A-6 Intruder squadron and a Persian Gulf War veteran, believes the show of force is needed to warn the Iraqi leader.

``You have to be careful with this man,'' said Frano, of Huntington, N.Y. ``We don't know if he's planning something else. That's why we're here.''

As the Enterprise's Tomcat pilots broke up a mission briefing, strapped on survival gear and headed to their planes, Hnarakis told a reporter that retaliating against Iraqi missile launchers would be insufficient.

``Frankly, shooting at anti-air is like shooting at the arrow, not at the archer,'' the Alexandria, Va., native said. ``Command bunkers, air defense operations centers - the places where the people who gather the raw information and do the decision-making - you'd certainly want to be hitting stuff like that.''

He noted that the F-14B planes, normally used in air-to-air combat, have been equipped for the first time to strike targets on land with laser-guided bombs. The mission also marks one of the last times A-6 Intruder planes, which are being phased out, will be used in military missions.

No hostile action has been reported by Iraq since it fired missiles at U.S. aircraft earlier this month. The United States responded by destroying Iraqi air-defense installations and expanding the southern no-fly zone.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Crew members move a Sidewinder air-to-air missile in to position on the deck of the USS Enterprise.

Associated Press