US, British Jets Bomb Southern IraqWarplanes of the United States and Britain bombed southern Iraq on Thursday, an Iraqi military spokesman said, without mentioning if there were any casualties.In a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), the spokesman said that the U.S. and British planes bombed "civil and service installations" in the southern Wasit Province, destroying some houses. The province is located inside the southern no-fly zone, which also covers six other provinces. The southern no-fly zone, along with another one in northern Iraq, was set up by the U.S.-led western allies after the 1991 Gulf War. The allied forces claimed the no-fly zones were aimed protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from the forces of President Saddam Hussein. The fresh air attacks by the U.S. and Britain came after Saddam said on Wednesday that the U.S. "is harvesting the thorns it has planted in the world," referring to Tuesday's air-borne terrorist attacks in the U.S.. Thousands of people are feared dead in the attacks, which caused the collapsing of the twin towers of the World Trade Center and partial damage to the Pentagon. |
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