Baghdad says US, British jets bomb northern Iraq

Iraq said US and British warplanes struck civilian targets in the north of the country today.

Iraq said US and British warplanes struck civilian targets in the north of the country today.

"At 12:15 a.m. (local time) today American and British planes violated our air spaces coming from military bases in Turkey, flying over Amadiya, Zakho, Ayn Zalah, Rawandiz and Duhouk," an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).

"The hostile planes attacked service and civilian installations in Nineveh province, inflicting severe damage to a house of a civilian and killing cattle," the spokesman said.

A spokesman for Northern Watch, based at the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, said: "We responded to continued Iraqi attacks with precision ordinance dropped on the elements of the integrated Iraqi air defence system."

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Iraq's ground air defences fired at the planes and forced them to return to their bases, he added.

US and British jets patrol no-fly zones set up by Western powers after the 1991 Gulf War.