Iraq Confirms US-British Airstrike on TargetsIraq on Tuesday confirmed an earlier US-British airstrike against its targets in the northern territories."Enemy planes coming from Turkish airspace attacked civilian installations in Niniva Province before fleeing under fire from missile batteries and anti-aircraft fire," an Iraqi spokesman said, quoted by the official INA news agency. He added that the US and British warplanes hit civilian targets in northern Iraq, causing no casualties. Earlier in the day, a Pentagon spokesman said that US warplanes pounded Iraqi air defenses in northern Iraq in retaliation for Iraqi missile attacks against coalition aircraft patrolling a no-fly zone. The US-led Western allies set up two no-fly zones after the 1991 Gulf War with the claimed aim of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from the attacks of the Iraqi government troops, have been used by the US to contain the Saddam regime. Iraq does not recognize the zones for lack of authorization from the United Nations. Iraq has been targeting the US and British aircraft patrolling the two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq with surface-to- surface missiles and anti-aircraft artillery. |
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