Three Iraqis Killed in US-British Air Raids: SpokesmanThree more Iraqis have been killed in a US-British air raid in southern Iraq, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.US and British warplanes attacked civilian targets on Monday in Basra Province, killing three people, identified as Raed Mazher Jamil, Wissam Nejm Abdel Reza and Walid Zagir Jabr, the spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA). The US and British planes fled back towards their bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait under fire from Iraq's anti-aircraft defenses, said the spokesman. The US and Britain "have thus added a crime to their record of terrorist attacks against the Iraqi people," he stressed. Last Wednesday, INA said that U.S. and British planes bombed a football court in Tal-Afar in the northern Iraqi province of Neineva, leaving 23 people dead and 11 others injured. But the US and Britain denied the accusation. Iraq says that US and British planes have made 32,702 sorties from Saudi, Kuwaiti and Turkish bases since December 1998 and that 350 Iraqis have been killed and 1,000 others injured in the US- British air strikes during the period. The US and British planes have been enforcing two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, set up by the US and its allies in 1991, to allegedly protect the Kurds in the north and the Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi troops. But Iraq does not recognize the zones for their lack of authorization from the United Nations. |
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