Allied aircraft strike southern Iraq; Iraq says two civilians killed

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Allied warplanes attacked military installations in southern Iraq on Wednesday, the second such airstrike in two days. Iraq said two civilians were killed.

One person was also injured in the attacks on “civil and service installations,” a military spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run Iraqi News Agency, which did not specify the attack site.

A U.S. military official said Wednesday that warplanes using precision-guided munitions had bombed two anti-aircraft artillery sites in Shahban, 225 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Chief Petty Officer David Nagle, a spokesman for the Saudi-based U.S.-British Joint Task Force Southwest Asia, said the sites were bombed in response to threats against aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone Wednesday. He did not elaborate on the nature of the threats.

All aircraft returned safely to base, said Nagle, but no damage assessment was available.

The Iraqi military spokesman said Riyadh Nahi Shaker and Murtadha Abdel Amir were killed in the air raids, while Amjad Rahim Khudhair was injured, according to the agency report.

Iraqi air defense units fired on the allied planes, “forcing them to leave our skies for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.

The attacks followed similar strikes Tuesday by U.S. and British aircraft on a military installation in southern Iraq.

Iraqi sites have fired on or otherwise threatened U.S.-British aircraft more than 400 times this year, according to the United States and Britain.

U.S. and British aircraft patrol southern and northern “no-fly” zones to prevent Iraqi forces from attacking Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south and to provide early warning of any Iraqi troop movements toward Kuwait.

Iraq considers the zones – established after the 1991 Gulf War – illegal and has vowed to shoot down any coalition planes.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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