Britain, France Back U.S. on Shiite Air Cover

British and French officials said Tuesday they have agreed to aU.S. proposal to block Iraqi air attacks against Shiite Muslims insouthern Iraq, declaring any Iraqi aircraft violating the "no fly"zone will be shot down.

British Prime Minister John Major, accusing Iraqi PresidentSaddam Hussein of "systematic murder, genocide" against the Shiites,said Tuesday that allied aircraft would patrol a broad area ofsouthern Iraq to enforce the ban.

"We will instruct the Iraqis not to fly in that area. They willbe attacked if they fly in the area that is proscribed," Major saidin an interview with a British television station, the Reuter newsagency reported from London.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas echoed Major'sremarks, saying the allies would extend much the same protection tothe Shiites that they already extend to Iraq's Kurdish minority northof the 36th parallel.

Bush administration officials have said the new security zonewould include the vast chunk of Iraqi territory south of the 32ndparallel, effectively grounding Iraqi flights in all but a narrowstrip across the country's central portion.

U.S. military officials say the ban can be enforced using AirForce and Navy aircraft already in the Persian Gulf region, andanalysts expressed doubt that Iraq would risk any more of its alreadydiminished air force by trying to defy it.

Nevertheless, the plan is not without risks for the Bushadministration, which fears the possible creation in southern Iraq ofa breakaway state under the control of fundamentalist Shiites linkedto neighboring Iran.

Saudi Arabia's Sunni Muslim leaders are especially leery aboutlending support to the Shiites, although U.S. officials have said inrecent days the Saudis appear to have accepted the idea thatHussein's steady escalation of military activity in the south demandsa firm response.

The security zone proposal was spurred by what Pentagonofficials described as an escalating military campaign against ShiiteMuslims in southern Iraq. Shiites constitute nearly 60 percent ofIraq's 18.2 million people and have long chafed under Hussein'sgovernment.

The center of Shiite resistance is in the south. In the chaosthat followed the Persian Gulf War, Shiites staged a rebellionagainst Hussein's forces, but the uprising was soon quelled and therebels were driven into the marshes or across the border into Iran.

Iraqi military's attacks on the Shiites have escalated recentlyfrom a relatively low-level counterinsurgency campaign to whatPentagon chief spokesman Pete Williams Tuesday described as "a moregeneralized attack against the Shia population."