US and British warplanes hit at targets in northern and southern Iraq yesterday in a weekend which saw an escalation of the aerial attacks.
A US jet, based at Incirlik in southern Turkey, fired a missile at an Iraqi radar site in the no-fly zone over northern Iraq and eight US and British aircraft attacked two Iraqi communications facilities in the southern no-fly zone, US spokesmen said.
All US and British aircraft involved in the operations returned to their bases safely, the spokesmen said.
The strikes came a day after US jets from Incirlik fired missiles at six Iraqi air-defence sites around the city of Mosul, marking an escalation in conflict in the area.
In Baghdad, the official Iraqi News Agency INA quoted a military spokesman as saying "hostile" aircraft from Turkey and Kuwait had attacked air defences in the north and south of the country with eight missiles and bombs yesterday.
He did not specifically name the nationalities of the aircraft.
"Our brave air defences intercepted the hostile planes in the northern and southern sectors, compelling them to flee away at 16.43 [1.43 p.m. Irish time] to the evil dens they came from," the spokesman said.
In diplomatic developments, Iraq criticised a UN Security Council decision to review all aspects of relations with Baghdad, saying it would mean months of delay while international sanctions remained in place.
"The work of the three panels on Iraq set up by the Security Council will take months and will mean nothing but procrastination and maintaining the unjust embargo on Iraq," INA quoted a spokesman as saying after a meeting of leading officials chaired by the President, Mr Saddam Hussein.
Iraq also renewed its rejection of the no-fly zones.
A statement released by the joint Turkish-US airbase at Incirlik said the US F-16 aircraft, "acting in self-defence", launched a high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) missile at a radar system north of Mosul.
"The radar system posed a threat to the F-16 and coalition forces conducting routine enforcement of the northern no-fly zone," it said.
A patrol group of more than 20 US F-15 and F-16 fighters, British Tornado jets, AWACS (radar and control aircraft) and tanker aircraft had taken off earlier into blue skies above the complex of red-brick buildings set behind wire near the southern Turkish city of Adana.
In the south, the aircraft hit at communications facilities after an Iraqi MiG 23 entered the country's southern no-fly zone, according to a statement issued by the US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
Destroying the facilities would impair the ability of Iraqi aircraft to fly in the southern zone, it said.
In Baghdad, the official INA news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying the Security Council should condemn the intensive US-led air strikes on Iraq in December and lift UN trade sanctions immediately.
"Iraq demands a condemnation of the aggression . . . and the unconditional and immediate lifting of the embargo," he said.
He said Baghdad was not consulted by the Security Council on its decision on Saturday to set up three panels to assess all aspects of Iraq's relations with the UN.
The three panels, first proposed by Canada, are to assess disarmament, the condition of the Iraqi people living under sanctions and an accounting of missing Kuwaitis and others during Iraq's occupation of the oil-rich country it invaded in August 1990.
Iraqi newspapers said Baghdad would not accept any option other than lifting the UN sanctions.
Babel, owned by President Saddam's eldest son, Uday, accused the US of trying to impede initiatives by France and other countries to ease the sanctions.
"The American game has been exposed. There is no more room for procrastination and there is no option but to lift the unjust embargo," it said.