US President George W. Bush authorised a US military strike against Iraqi targets to knock out radar facilities posing a threat to allied aircraft enforcing a no-fly zone, a White House official said tonight.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, in Mexico with Mr Bush on a one-day visit, described the attack as "routine enforcement" of the no-fly zone in Iraq.
He said Mr Bush authorized the strike yesterday morning and was told that it had taken place while he held talks with Mexican President Vicente Fox at Fox's San Cristobal ranch in central Mexico.
"It was the existence of radar facilities that posed a threat to our aircraft," Mr Fleischer said.
It was the first such strike since Bush took over as president on Jan 20 and may presage a tougher attitude toward Baghdad. "The president has always said we take seriously our responsibilities to protect our coalition allies and enforce the no-fly zone," Mr Fleischer said.
Mr Bush authorized the strike because it required allied planes to leave the no-fly zone in southern Iraq in order to hit the targets, Mr Fleischer said. A Pentagon official in Washington said, however, no US planes crossed the northern edge of the zone during the strike.
"Since 1991 coalition aircraft have been enforcing the no-fly zone in Iraq. Today, allied armed forces conducted a routine strike associated with enforcement of the no-fly zone," Mr Fleischer said.
"Coalition aircraft struck targets that were instrumental in providing air defenses that threaten coalition aircraft that were on patrol in the southern no-fly zone," he said.