Airstrike On Iraq

U.S. and British warplanes have bombed an anti-aircraft artillery site in southern Iraq in response to firing at coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone in the area, a Saudi-based U.S. Air Force spokesman said Tuesday.

The attack took place Monday evening at the site near Tallil some 170 miles southeast of Baghdad, said the spokesman for the Joint Task Force South West Asia.

Damage assessment from the strike, carried out with precision-guided munitions, was ongoing, he said. All coalition aircraft returned safely to base, the spokesman said on condition he not be named.

Monday's strike was the first this year. The last strike was in November.

The spokesman described Monday's firing from Iraq's air defense site as, "intense enough" to warrant rapid return of fire from coalition aircraft. It brought to approximately 1,050 the total similar violations by Iraq since 1998.

U.S. and British planes have been patrolling skies over northern and southern Iraq since the end of the 1991 Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from a seven-month Iraqi occupation. The patrols were set up to protect Kurds and Shiite Muslims from the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Iraq says the zones violate international law and has been challenging allied planes patrolling them since December 1998.

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