M A I N   N E W S

Four Iraqis killed

Baghdad, June 20
Four Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded when US and British warplanes bombed southern Iraq today, a military spokesman in Baghdad said.

The United States and Britain “added another ugly crime to their black record when their aircraft attacked our civilian and services installations in Missan province, 366 km South of Baghdad, killing four citizens and wounding 10,” he said, quoted by the official INA news agency.

The US Central Command earlier said US and British warplanes struck an Iraqi military command and control centre that was helping to direct anti-aircraft artillery fire at coalition planes patrolling an no-fly zone in South Iraq.

The Iraqi spokesman said surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery “forced the warplanes to flee in the direction of their bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait”.

Allied planes carried out several raids on other provinces of southern Iraq, including Basra, Al-Amara and Nassiriya, he said.

In the USA, the Central Command said the air strike was launched after aircraft enforcing the southern no-fly zone came under Iraqi attack.

Warplanes used precision guided weapons to strike “facilities of a military command and control centre,” the command said in a statement.

“This facility was struck because it helped direct anti-aircraft artillery attacks against coalition aircraft authorised by the United Nations Security Council to enforce the no-fly zones in southern Iraq,” it said. AFP