20000313

Eight civilians

hurt in US,

UK raid: Iraq

BAGHDAD: US and British warplanes attacked targets in southern Iraq on Saturday, injuring eight civilians, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

The agency did not specify the nature of the targets hit or their location, but it said the planes flew over sites in the provinces of Basra, Dhiqar, Muthana, Najaf and Missan.

"Our anti-air missiles and artillery fired at the (enemy) air formations and forced them to leave our airspace," a spokesman for the Iraqi Air Defence Force said, according to the agency.

US and British officials had no immediate confirmation of the strikes. Their warplanes have struck Iraqi targets frequently in response, officials say, to Iraqi air defences opening fire on the jets.

The Iraqi agency also said US and British jets entered Iraqi airspace in the north, but reported no incident. British officials said they had no comment on any strikes.

US and British planes have been enforcing no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq since shortly after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Shiite Muslims and Kurds from attacks by the Iraqi armed forces.

Iraq does not recognise the zones and began challenging the allied planes in December 1998.ÑAP