Cairo, Dec 14: US jets attacked three air defence installations today south and east of Baghdad after Iraqi military jets violated the southern no-fly zone, the US Central Command said on its web site.
The command said the US planes used "precision-guided weapons" against the three sites in response to Iraqi threats.
The military said it hit targets at al Kut, 160 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, Qal'at Sukkar, 275 kilometres southeast of the capital and al Amarah, 265 kilometres to the east-southeast.
Central Command spokesman Maj Pete Mitchell said coalition aircraft struck the sites after Iraqi warplanes violated the southern no-fly zone.
"They (the Iraqi warplanes) went south. I cannot begin to
ascertain what their motivation was in doing so other than
plainly violating the zone," Mitchell told the Associated
Press in Washington.
US and coalition aircraft have patrolled the southern and
northern no-fly zones since the end of the 1991 Gulf War,
which expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The zones were
established to prevent Saddam Hussein from attacking the
Kurdish minority in the north of the country and the Shiites
in the south.
Bureau Report
