U.S. Planes Bomb Several Iraqi Sites in Both ‘No-Fly’ Zones

U.S. warplanes struck back at antiaircraft artillery sites and communications facilities in “no-fly” zones in northern and southern Iraq on Saturday after being targeted by Iraqi air defenses, the U.S. military said.

The official Iraqi News Agency said “ungodly criminals” carried out 17 sorties near Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad, and 40 sorties in southern Iraq, wounding “a number of people.”

The report on casualties could not be independently confirmed. The Pentagon did not issue a damage assessment.

At U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., a spokesman said Air Force and Navy planes bombed an Iraqi radar site and an antiaircraft missile battery in the southern zone, 100 miles northwest of the city of Basra.

The strikes occurred after Iraqi radar “illuminated” the U.S. planes, Central Command said in a statement. A pilot whose plane is illuminated by radar assumes the enemy is about to open fire.

In the northern no-fly zone, allied planes hit sites south of Saddam Lake near Mosul, said a statement from Operation Northern Watch, which enforces the northern zone.

In London, a spokesman for the British Defense Ministry said British planes were not involved in Saturday’s airstrikes.

Allied aircraft patrol the no-fly zones to prevent the Iraqi air force from operating over northern and southern Iraq. The zones were set up after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to protect the Kurdish minority in the north and Shiite rebels in the south.

Iraq does not recognize the zones and regards the patrolling planes as intruders. It has been challenging the allied planes almost daily since December, provoking retaliatory strikes.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Iraq has launched about 20 surface-to-air missiles at U.S. warplanes since the strikes on Iraq resumed more than two months ago. He spoke with reporters en route to the Middle East.

The United States insists that the battles over Iraq’s skies have not weakened its ties with Gulf allies. But Cohen said a key part of his Middle East mission involves reassuring friendly Gulf states.

U.S. officials say it appears that Iraq is removing missile batteries from the no-fly zones because of the pounding from U.S. warplanes.