HIGHLIGHTS: USBritish Planes Attack Iraqi Air Defenses, U.S. Officials.
USBritish Planes Attack Civilian Facilities, Iraq News Agency.
No Mention of Casualties.

STORYU.S. and British planes patrolling a no-fly zone over northern Iraq bombed Iraqi air defense systems Friday in response to anti-aircraft fire, U.S. officials said.

The bombs were dropped after Iraqi forces east of Mosul fired on a routine air patrol, the U.S. European Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, said in a written statement.

In Baghdad, the official Iraqi News Agency quoted a statement from the Iraqi military that described the raid as an attack on civilian facilities.

The agency made no mention of casualties.

It was the first bombing of northern Iraq since February and the third this year, U.S. officials said, and came amid intense debate on whether Iraq will be the next target in what the U.S. administration is calling a war against terrorism.

Washington has hinted it could launch a military campaign to overthrow Saddam if the Iraqi leader continues to deny admission to United Nations weapons inspectors, who are tasked with checking if the Baghdad regime has dismantled its weapons of mass destruction. The inspectors have been barred from Iraq since 1998.

Talks between Iraq and the United Nations on the return of the inspectors were due to begin mid-April, but Iraq has asked for a delay on the grounds that talks would be dominated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if they were held at this stage.

SOURCE: ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP)

PHOTO CAPTION:
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein speaks on national television on April 8. REUTERS/Pool