USS Abraham Lincoln rides out a storm in the Arabian Sea while supporting Operation Southern Watch and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Operation Southern Focus was a period in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq (called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in the United States) in which the military responses to violations of the southern Iraqi no-fly zones were increased, with more intensive bombing of air defense artillery installations and other military complexes. It also marked a period of increased intelligence gathering. The operation lasted from June 2002 until the beginning of the invasion in March 2003. It was intended to be a "softening up" period prior to invasion, degrading Iraq's air defense and communication abilities. Lieutenant General Michael Moseley revealed the operation's existence in mid-2003. Download high resolution version (2100x2188, 1953 KB)At sea aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) Nov. ... Download high resolution version (2100x2188, 1953 KB)At sea aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) Nov. ... The second USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), nicknamed Abe, is the fifth Nimitz-class supercarrier in the United States Navy. ... Map of the Arabian Sea. ... Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) is the military response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States . ... The 2003 invasion of Iraq was launched by the United States and the United Kingdom on March 20, 2003, with support from some other governments, making up what was described as the coalition of the willing. ... Categories: Stub | 2003 Iraq conflict ... American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft, or air defense, is any method of combating military aircraft from the ground. ... Military intelligence (abbreviated MI, int. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for June, 2002. ... 2003 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - → A timeline of events in the news for March, 2003. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The operation was not publicly declared at the time, and was just said to be an intensification of the already-existing Operation Southern Watch. When it began, the United States Defense Department and CENTCOM stated that increasing numbers of bombings of Iraqi installations in the region were merely in response to more attacks by the air-defense forces of that country. The Iraqi no-fly zones had been patrolled continuously since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, and bombings by American and coalition fighter aircraft had taken place on a regular basis. However, Southern Focus saw many more engagements. Coalition forces responded to 651 attacks by dropping 606 bombs on 391 targets over the course of the operation. Operation Southern Watch was an operation conducted by Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) with the mission of monitoring and controlling airspace south of the 33rd Parallel in Iraq, following the 1991 Gulf War up until the start of the Second Gulf War in 2003. ... The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ... Emblem of the United States Central Command. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... C Company, 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment, 1st UK Armoured Division The 1991 Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations mandated by the United Nations and led by the United States. ... A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for attacking other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. ...

The tonnage of bombs dropped increased from 0 in March 2002 and 0.3 in April 2002 to between 7 and 14 tons per month in May-August, reaching a pre-war peak of 54.6 tons in September - prior to Congress' 11 October authorisation of the invasion. The September attacks included a 5 September 100-aircraft attack on the main air defence site in western Iraq. According to The New Statesman this was "Located at the furthest extreme of the southern no-fly zone, far away from the areas that needed to be patrolled to prevent attacks on the Shias, it was destroyed not because it was a threat to the patrols, but to allow allied special forces operating from Jordan to enter Iraq undetected."[1] October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in Leap years). ... The Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq (H.J.Res. ... September 5 is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years). ... The New Statesman was an award-winning British sitcom of the 1980s satirising the Conservative government of the time. ...

See also

• Downing Street memo
• Operation Rockingham

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Downing Street memo The Downing Street memo (occasionally DSM), sometimes described by critics of the Iraq War as the smoking gun memo, allegedly contains the minutes of a secret 23 July 2002 meeting among United Kingdom government, defence and intelligence figures, discussing... Operation Rockingham is an intelligence unit whose existence was revealed in June 2003 by the Scottish Sunday Herald. ...

References

• Michael Smith, The New Statesman, 30 May 2005, "The war before the war"
• John Pike (March 26, 2004). Operation Southern Focus. GlobalSecurity.org. Accessed May 4, 2004.
• Michael R. Gordon (July 21, 2003). How U.S. softened Iraq's defenses. New York Times. Accessed via the International Herald Tribune, May 4, 2004.