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Apr 13, 2001 - 08:53 PM

Iraq Says U.S., British Warplanes Bombed Southern Iraq The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. warplanes bombed targets in southern Iraq and were fired upon by anti-aircraft artillery, the United States and Iraq said Friday. The state-run Iraqi News Agency quoted an unidentified Iraqi military spokesman as saying U.S. and British planes attacked "civilian installations" on Thursday before they were chased away by Iraqi air-defense. It said there were no casualties.

In Washington, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. David LaPan said only U.S. planes took part in the strike on an anti-aircraft artillery site about 130 miles southeast of Baghdad. He said it came after an Iraqi attack on allied planes Wednesday.

U.S. and British planes regularly patrol the skies over southern and northern Iraq to enforce "no-fly" zones meant to prevent Iraqi forces from attacking Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south.

Iraq does not recognize the zones and since 1998 has been challenging the U.S. and British patrols by locking air defense radar on allied planes.

LaPan said it was the tenth time since January that coalition planes have responded to Iraqi attacks, which he said have been increasing. He said Iraq has attacked coalition planes 170 times so far this year compared with about 220 times all of last year.

The last major allied strike was on Feb. 16, when the United States and Britain sent two dozen jets to attack air defense sites around Baghdad, saying Iraq had been improving its ability to target - and potentially shoot down - their pilots.

Before Thursday, the most recent strike was on March 30, when a U.S. warplane attacked an anti-artillery site near the city of As Samawah on the Euphrates River in southern Iraq.

AP-ES-04-13-01 2053EDT

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

Answers

bbc Friday, 13 April, 2001, 23:27 GMT 00:27 UK

US bombs southern Iraq

Iraq said the aircraft carried out 24 sorties United States warplanes have bombed targets in southern Iraq.

US officials say the action was in response to anti-aircraft fire directed at Western planes patrolling the air exclusion zone over Iraq.

There are no reports of casualties.

An Iraqi military spokesman said the planes had attacked civilian installations before being chased away by the country's air defences.

He said the aircraft carried out 24 sorties from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and flew over the provinces of Basra, Dhiqar, Muthanna, Qadassiya and Wassit.

The two no-fly zones, one to the north of the 36th parallel and one to the south of the 32nd parallel, were unilaterally created by the US, Britain and France soon after the Gulf War.

The northern zone was established after Baghdad mobilised helicopter gunships to quell a Kurdish uprising.

The southern zone was imposed to protect Shi'a Muslims who also rebelled against Baghdad.

Humanitarian crisis

Iraq was banned from using all aircraft, including helicopters, in the air exclusion zones.

The justification was that an acute humanitarian crisis made it necessary to infringe the sovereignty of Iraq in this way.

However, unlike the military campaign to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait, the no-fly zones were not authorised by the UN and they are not specifically sanctioned by any Security Council resolution.

The last major strike was on 16 February, when the United States and Britain sent two dozen jets to attack air defense sites around Baghdad, saying Iraq had been improving its ability to target - and potentially shoot down - their pilots.

The US and Britain have kept up attacks whenever Iraqi air defences have locked onto their aircraft.

Baghdad says that more than 300 civilians have died in these attacks, but the US and British air forces dispute some of these figures.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

Well, if Iraq keeps getting better at targeting, and is locking on to the aircraft, then it sounds like the US/UK targeters aren't hitting the right things, so maybe the death counts are accurate?

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001