American and British warplanes bombed an Iraqi air defense base in northern Iraq after the Iraqis fired on the patrolling aircraft. American officials have warned that if Iraq fired on warplanes patrolling the no-fly zone were fired on, this might be seen as a breach of the Iraqi acceptance of the resumed arms inspections. 

In actuality, Iraq did not accept the resumption of arms inspections. The Iraqi "acceptance letter" merely said that Iraq would let the arms inspectors back in and that Iraq would "deal with" the inspections. The Iraqi letter also talked about maintaining Iraqi honor, which is a code word for keeping inspectors out of "presidential palaces." The Iraqis have said they won't do that this time. But reports from Iraqi defectors indicate that chemical weapons are hidden in Mosques and residential neighborhoods. Iraq also has a well trained and drilled unit of "clean up troops," who will quickly remove sensitive material as arms inspectors approach. The Iraqis have, in past, shown a talent for through traffic jams and vehicle accidents in the way of arms inspectors, in order to slow them down when they approach a sensitive site. The arms inspections are expected to be another game of cat and mouse.

Kurdish media in northern Iraq reported that eight Iraqi officers (including a general and a colonel) were executed. Their offense was an explosion at an Iraqi missile storage site. Iraq doesn't have many missiles, and an accidental explosion that destroyed some of these missiles was apparently seen as a capital offense. Kurdish radio reported that twelve women, recently freed from Iraqi prisons, were found dead in a vacant lot in Baghdad. No other details were given.