Iraq Says 4 Wounded in US, British Airstrikes

Four Iraqis were wounded in air strikes Tuesday by US and British warplanes on southern Iraq, a military spokesman said, cited by the official INA news agency. The spokesman said the four were wounded in the "bombardment of civilian installations in
Muthanna province."

09.04.01

Four Iraqis were wounded in air strikes Tuesday by US and British warplanes on southern Iraq, a military spokesman said, cited by the official INA news agency.

The spokesman said the four were wounded in
the "bombardment of civilian installations in
Muthanna province."

He added that missiles and anti-aircraft fire
had "forced enemy planes to flee after
carrying out raids, besides Muthanna, on the
provinces of Basra, Zi Qar and Qadissiya."

Other allied aircraft "were forced to
turn back under fire from missile batteries and
anti-aircraft gunners after carrying out raids on
the provinces of Dohuk, Erbil and Niniveh" in
northern Iraq.

The US military announced earlier that its
warplanes attacked Iraqi air defence sites in
northern and southern Iraq in response to Iraqi
ground fire and "hostile threats."

The US European Command said coalition
warplanes struck "elements of Iraq’s
integrated air defence" in northern Iraq in
response to anti-aircraft artillery fire and after
coalition aircraft monitoring a no-fly zone in the
north were targeted by Iraqi radar.

In the south US jets used precision guided
munitions to attack anti-aircraft artillery and
surface-to-air missile sites around As Samwah, 209
kilometers (130 miles) southeast of Baghdad, a
spokesman for the US Central Command said.

The command, based in Tampa, Florida, but
responsible for forces in the Gulf, said the
attack was "in response to recent Iraqi
hostile threats against coalition aircraft
monitoring the southern no-fly zone."

It would not say how many sites were struck in
the raid.

The raids were the latest episode in a
long-running US and British campaign to enforce
no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq that
were imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq has improved the effectiveness of its air
defences in the past year with fiber optic
communications links.

"The concern is that … their ability to
target us is improved," said Colonel Rick
Thomas, spokesman for the US Central Command.

"And therefore the ability of these sites
to target and potentially hit coalition aircraft
is the reason we struck."

US Air Force F-16s and Navy F/A-18s from the
aircraft carrier USS Enterprise took part in
Tuesday’s raid in the south.

In the north the bombing followed
anti-aircraft artillery fire from sites north of
Mosul, the European Command’s statement said,
adding that the patrol planes were also targeted
by Iraqi radar.

US aircraft "responded to the Iraqi
attacks by delivering ordnance on elements of the
Iraqi integrated air defence system," the
statement said in the usual formula.

The jets returned safely to their base in
Incirlik in Turkey’s southern province of Adana,
the military said.

When was the last time the U.S. Bombed Iraq? –http://www.ccmep.org/us_bombing_watch.html

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