U.S. Jets Strike Again In Iraq

American F-16 jets Friday fired two missiles at a northern Iraqi radar site, after the radar locked onto the planes patrolling the area, according to U.S. military officials.

The United States European Command Web site confirmed the attack.

"While conducting routine patrols of the no-fly zone, two U.S. F-16s launched two AGM 88 high-speed anti-radiation missiles in self-defense at a radar site," Captain Mike Blass said by telephone from U.S. European Command in Germany.

The U.S. military spokesman said there was no damage to the jets and damage to the Iraqi site was being assessed.

The now regular strikes on Iraqi air defenses have led to a dispute between Iraq and its neighbors Turkey, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, which provide bases for the U.S. and British air patrols.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan warned Kuwait and Saudi Arabia this week that Baghdad was "able to do significant harm," if they continued to allow Western forces to operate from their soil.

Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones declared by Western powers to protect rebel Kurds in the north and Shi'ite Moslems in the south.

Iraqi Kurdish forces control a swathe of land in northern Iraq in a fragile de-facto independence from Baghdad. The area around Mosul, where the U.S. jets fired on the Iraqi target, remains under Baghdad's control.