"U.S. and British warplanes bombed this morning a primary school in the city of Mosul, injuring eight civilian citizens including women and three children," the official Iraqi News Agency quoted a military spokesman as saying. It said the school, nearby houses and two cars were damaged.

"Nine hostile formations...attacked the Zanabiq Primary School in one of the residential quarters in Zuhur region of Mosul," the spokesman said.

He added that Iraqi "ground resistance units" engaged the planes, forcing them to leave Iraqi airspace and return to bases in Turkey.

The spokesman said other planes coming from Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti airspace had flown over southern Iraqi provinces but made no mention of any bombing there.

The U.S. European Command in Germany said Western planes bombed Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries that had fired at them.

It said the Iraqis had also used target-tracking radar from a site north of Mosul but the aircraft returned safely to base.

U.S. and British aircraft have been patrolling no-fly zones over Iraq since multinational forces won the 1991 Gulf War, which was triggered by Baghdad's invasion of Kuwait. They have clashed repeatedly with Iraqi air defenses since Baghdad declared last December that it would challenge foreign warplanes flying over its territory.

On Nov. 22, Iraq said Western warplanes attacked targets in the south of the country and 10 people were wounded.