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US Commits Another Crime Against Iraq: Official
The US has committed another crime against Iraq by attacking targets inside the no-fly zone in southern Iraq, said Mohammad al-Duri, Iraq's ambassador to the UN., on Friday.
"The missile attack on Friday was another crime by the U.S. against the sovereignty of Iraq," Duri said in a televised interview, stressing that Iraq has been fully prepared and ready for self-defense.
Some 50 U.S. and British warplanes on Friday attacked three air- defense targets in the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.
One Iraqi was killed and 11 others wounded in the attack, an Iraqi military spokesman told the official INA agency.
This was the largest U.S.-British attack against Iraq since February when U.S. and British jets bombed southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital. Two people were reportedly killed and 20 others injured in that attack.
Friday's airstrike was in response to Iraq's stepped-up campaign to shoot down a U.S. or British plane patrolling and bombing the two no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq.
The strike was the second this week. U.S. and British planes bombed targets in the northern no-fly zone on Tuesday.
The U.S. claimed that Iraqi gunners nearly hit a high-fly U-2 spy plane on July 24 and has vowed to launch a bombing campaign to retaliate against Iraq's attempts to shoot down a coalition plane.
Iraq, meanwhile, has said it would defend itself by all means against U.S. military strikes.
The two no-fly zones were set up by the U.S.-led Western allies after the 1991 Gulf War with the claimed aim of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from the possible attacks of the Iraqi government forces.
Iraq does not recognize the zones for lack of authorization from the U.N. and has regularly fired anti-aircraft missile at the hostile planes.
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