US warplanes taking off from the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey bombed Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery sites in the northern no-fly zone yesterday, a statement from the base in Ankara said.
"Responding in self-defence, US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles dropped GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on several anti-aircraft artillery sites north-west and west of Mosul," the statement said.
It added that the strikes came after Iraqi artillery opened fire and radar locked onto the aircraft. "All coalition aircraft departed the area safely," the statement said.
US and British fighter jets have had almost daily incidents with Iraqi air defences in northern and southern Iraq since the four-day Desert Fox bombing campaign in December.
Iraq has never recognised the air-exclusion zones which were imposed by the US and its allies after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Iraq's Kurdish and Shia minorities.
The northern no-fly zone is patrolled by planes taking off from Incirlik, while the southern exclusion zone is monitored by planes based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Senior Turkish authorities have openly expressed their concerns over the increasing number of strikes launched by aircraft taking off from Incirlik.
Meanwhile, nine men convicted of the killing or attempted murder of three Shia Muslim clerics have been executed in Iraq, Baghdad newspapers said yesterday.
The men admitted their role in the murder of two clerics in 1998, Ayatollah Ali Gharavi (68) and Sheikh Ali Mohammad al-Barujurdi (70), and a failed attempt in 1996 on Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a statement from the public security office said.
The men were hanged on Saturday.