Errant U.S. Missile May Have Killed Iraq Civilians

U.S. jet fighters attacking Iraqi air defenses on Monday apparently misfired at least one missile and may have killed or wounded civilians in the southern city of Basra, Pentagon officials said.

U.S. officials said they still were studying the evidence, but the Iraqi regime declared that the attack killed 11 people and injured dozens more in a residential area. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz denounced the attack as “cowardly and treacherous aggression.”

The attack came after more than four weeks in which the United States says Iraq has challenged “no-fly” zones in the south and north of the country with 70 incursions by more than 100 warplanes. Any civilian casualties apparently would be the first since last month’s four-day air assault by U.S. and British planes. U.S. officials said civilian casualties apparently were slight during that bombardment, which ended Dec. 19.

On Monday, after Iraqi planes breached the southern no-fly zone, illuminated a U.S. plane with radar and fired antiaircraft artillery at it, American fighters responded with attacks against the Iraqi air defense system. They fired at surface-to-air missile batteries, communications equipment, anti-aircraft artillery, early warning systems and military radar, inflicting substantial damage, U.S. officials said.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, weapons inspectors presented a report of more than 200 pages, including an extensive list of questions remaining about Iraq’s weapons programs.

The report said the scope of Iraq’s biological weapons program remains uncertain. In chilling language, it warned:

“It needs to be recognized that Iraq possesses an industrial capability and knowledge base, through which biological warfare agents could be produced quickly and in volume, if the government of Iraq decided to do so.”

The report also listed questions remaining about Iraq’s chemical weapons and missiles. Russia, backed by China and Malaysia, blocked formal distribution of the report. A Western diplomat said the three countries claimed they no longer had any confidence in the weapons inspectors.

The Pentagon said the errant missile on Monday may have been an AGM-130, a newly issued model equipped with 2,000 pounds of explosives and powered by its own rocket.

But officials acknowledged that if the missile goes astray--either through pilot error or malfunction--it can veer far off course before nosing to Earth and exploding.

They said they have been trying to avoid residential and commercial areas, but they contend that the Iraqis have been moving air defense equipment near some civilian centers.

Western television organizations, invited to the Al-Jumhuriya residential neighborhood of Basra by the Iraqi government, filmed Iraqi crews cleaning up rubble.

Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, the U.S. commander for the Middle East, said in a Pentagon briefing that talks with returning U.S. pilots had indicated “the possibility of one missile that may have been errant.” He said U.S. officials “deeply regret any civilian casualties, whatever the cause may be.”

But he accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of stepping up provocations against allied warplanes in an effort to win propaganda points.

He contended that Hussein had recently moved three times the usual number of surface-to-air missile batteries into the southern no-fly zone, which extends south from the 33rd parallel.

Some lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have been urging the administration to pound Hussein’s air defense systems and aircraft before they shoot down U.S. pilots.

Zinni asserted that the U.S. response since the end of the December campaign has inflicted significant punishment on Hussein.

Times staff writer John J. Goldman at the United Nations contributed to this report.