Iraq said U. S. and British warplanes bombed targets in southern Iraq on Thursday and Friday and reported no casualties.
The U. S. military said earlier that its fighter jets struck an anti-aircraft missile in a no-fly zone in southern Iraq on Friday in reaction to repeated Iraqi attempts to shoot down U. S. and British aircraft patrolling the area.
The most recent such attack, among charges in the no-fly zones of northern and southern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, was carried out against a surface-to-air missile (SAM) site near An Kut, about 240 km southeast of An. Kut. Baghdad around 10:30 a. m. Iraq time (06:30 GMT), the army’s Central Command said.
Iraq said there were strikes at 11:35 p. m. on Thursday (19:35 GMT) and on Friday at 08:10 a. m. 04:10 (GMT).
“Yesterday at 23:35 local time (19:35 GMT), hostile aircraft violated our airspace, destroying 8 sorties using air bases in Kuwait,” the Iraqi army spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi news agency (INA). .
“The enemy targeted civilian and service facilities in Wassit province,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman added that Western coalition aircraft attacked targets in Wasit province, 172 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, on Thursday morning.
“Enemy aircraft attacked civilian and service facilities in Wassit province for the second time at 8:10 a. m. local time,” he said.
Iraqi air defenses fired on the planes.
The no-fly zones of American and British air policing forces established in northern and southern Iraq after the Gulf War.
Iraq recognises these spaces. This is the eighth strike by U. S. aircraft against air defense targets in those spaces in less than two weeks.
Trade has intensified markedly in recent months as it has been hypothesized that President George W. Bush would order the U. S. military to invade Iraq and overthrow President Saddam Hussein. Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.
Baghdad denies Washington’s accusations that Saddam is running to expand weapons of mass destruction.
U. S. Central Command, which oversees U. S. military operations in the Gulf and the Middle East, said in a statement from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, that all fighter jets effectively left the target domain and that damage to the missile site was still being assessed.
Published via Associated Newspapers Ltd.
Part of the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and Metro Media Group