IRAQ: Basra Airport Attacked

Iraq has claimed that British and US warplanes have attacked Basra International Airport and other civilian and military targets.

Aircrafts attacked civilian and military installations at Anbar, Basra and Kut.

Earlier the Ministry or Defence said British and US warplanes have been in action against Iraqi weapons systems in the southern "no fly" zone.
A MoD spokeswoman described the patrols as "standard 'no-fly' zone activity".

"We are targeting systems which are a threat to our forces," the spokeswoman said.

The US said fighter planes from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk bombed at least two targets in southern Iraq on Wednesday.

Lieutenant Nicole Kratzer, a spokeswoman for Carrier Air Wing Five, the airborne strike force aboard the Kitty Hawk, said the targets were "an Iraqi intelligence facility and mobile missile sites."

"Eight F/A-18 Hornets and two F-14 Tomcats from Carrier Airwing Five conducted response option air strikes against Iraqi targets in south-eastern Iraq," she told reporters aboard the Kitty Hawk.

She said the bombs were laser-guided, precision weapons but did not elaborate.

Al-Arabiya television, an Arab-language satellite news station, reported that six rockets destroyed an Iraqi intelligence telecommunications tower near the border with Jordan.

It was not clear whether the strikes were the precursor to the main British and US onslaught. British and US aircraft have been patrolling the northern and southern "no- fly" zones since the end of the last Gulf War.