Allied Jets in Northern Iraq Encounter Antiaircraft Fire

Iraq said Western warplanes attacked sites in northern Iraq on Thursday before antiaircraft defenses forced them to return to their bases in Turkey.

The U.S. armed forces’ European Command said in a statement released in Germany that U.S. aircraft had bombed a military target and returned safely to base.

The Iraqi News Agency quoted a military spokesman as saying that “10 hostile formations . . . flew over regions in the provinces of Dahuk, Irbil and Nineveh, and the enemy attacked civil and service installations.”

“Our brave ground resistance forces intercepted them and forced them to leave our airspace to return to their bases of evil in Turkey,” the spokesman said.

Such attacks are not uncommon in the northern and southern “no-fly” zones patrolled by U.S. and allied aircraft. The zones were imposed by the West after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to protect Iraq’s Kurdish minority and Shiite Muslims from the regime of President Saddam Hussein.

“Damage to Iraqi forces is currently being assessed. All coalition aircraft departed the area safely,” the U.S. armed forces’ European Command said.

The last such incident was on July 2, after which Iraq said it had proof that its antiaircraft defenses had hit a Western plane. The U.S. command said all returned safely.

The military described the target Thursday as an intelligence and operations center.

There have been numerous bombing incidents in the north since Baghdad said in December that it would no longer recognize the no-fly zones and would attack Western planes flying over them.

The U.S. planes taking part in what is called Operation Northern Watch generally fly from bases in Turkey. Turkish aircraft were also in action over Iraq on Thursday, bombing northern sites controlled by anti-Turkish Kurds.