ANKARA, May 23 (AFP)-U.S. fighter jets bombed northern Iraq for a second
day in a row on Tuesday after coming under Iraqi fire during routine
patrols over the no-fly zone in the region.
The aircraft -dropped ordinance on elements of the Iraqi integrated air
defense system- after Iraqi forces fired artillery from sites near Bashiqah
and northwest of Mosul, the Stuttgart-based U.S. European Command said in a
statement received here. All the planes returned safely to base in Incirlik
in southern Turkey, it added.
Some 40 British and U.S. planes are based at Incirlik to patrol the
northern no-fly zone imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War to protect the
region*s Kurdish population.
A similar exclusion zone was also set up over southern Iraq to protect the
Shiite Muslim population there and is patrolled by U.S. and British
aircraft based in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Iraq does not recognize the zones, which are not authorized by any specific
U.N. resolution, and has regularly fired on aircraft patrolling them since
joint U.S-British air raids on Baghdad in December 1998. The United States
says the planes only target military objectives in self-defense, but the
Iraqis say civilians, and civilian installations are frequently hit.
Wassalamu'alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarokaatuh
(DI-25/05/00)
