BAGHDAD (Islamweb and Agencies) - Iraq said U.S. and British planes attacked targets in the south of the country on Saturday, but no casualties were reported.
``At 8:50 a.m. on Saturday U.S. and British warplanes carried out 20 sorties from Saudi Arabia and 27 sorties from Kuwait...over the provinces of Basra, Dhiqar, Qadissiya, Muthanna, Najaf and Meisan,'' a military spokesman said, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.
He said the planes attacked civilian installations but were forced to return to their bases by anti-aircraft fire.
There was no confirmation from the United States or Britain, whose aircraft patrol no-fly zones set up to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north of Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Baghdad forces.
U.S. and British air raids have become commonplace since Iraq, which does not recognize the no-fly zones, vowed in 1998 to challenge the patrols with its anti-aircraft defenses.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Iraq said on June 20, 2001 on 23 people died and 11 were wounded when Western warplanes targeted a playing field in a northern Iraqi town, but Britain and the United States denied any attack. (Reuters Graphic)