- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq
said on Sunday U.S. jets had raided the Basra civilian airport for the
second time in a week, targeting its radar systems and the passenger terminals.
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- In Tampa, Florida, U.S. Central Command confirmed an
attack but said it was aimed at a military mobile radar at Basra "in
response to hostile acts."
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- An Iraqi Transport Ministry spokesman said in a statement
to the official Iraqi News Agency: "Planes of the American enemy targeted
and destroyed for the second time the civilian radar system of Basra airport."
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- The spokesman said the attack on the airport in Basra,
300 miles southeast of Baghdad, took place on Sunday at 00:45 a.m. (4:45
p.m. EDT on Saturday).
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- An Iraqi military spokesman said U.S. and British planes
on Saturday night attacked "civilian and service" installations
in Qalat Sikur, about 130 miles southeast of Baghdad.
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- U.S. Central Command spokesman Major Bill Harrison said
two military sites were targeted.
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- "In response to Iraqi hostile acts against coalition
aircraft monitoring the southern no-fly zone, Operation Southern Watch
coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons Saturday to strike a military
mobile radar near al Basra, Iraq, and a surface-to-air missile site near
Qalat Sikur, Iraq," Harrison said.
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- He said the U.S. military was assessing the damage.
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- "Coalition strikes in the no-fly zones are executed
as a self-defense measure in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts
against coalition forces and their aircraft," he said.
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- U.S. and British jets police two no-fly zones in northern
and southern Iraq set up after the 1991 Gulf War.
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- SECOND ATTACK IN A WEEK
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- Iraq said on Thursday U.S. jets had raided Basra civilian
airport and destroyed its radar system. The United States said it had hit
a military radar at the airport and the target was far from civilian activity.
That attack took place on Wednesday night.
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- U.S. F-16 jets also attacked the airport in August.
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- Sunday's raids took place at a time when three U.S. congressmen
were visiting Basra to assess the humanitarian situation in the southern
Iraqi city. They used the airport to travel to and out of Basra.
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- Democratic Representatives Jim McDermott of Washington,
David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California returned to Baghdad
aboard an Iraqi Airways plane six hours after the reported attack.
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- In interviews with reporters of Western media who accompanied
them, they did not mention the attack, but a Reuters cameraman said he
heard sirens wailing in Basra at the time given by the Iraqi spokesman
for the attack.
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- "What thing worries me and my colleagues is if we
got a war again we would simply double and triple the (humanitarian) problems
we created in 1991," McDermott said.
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- Basra airport occupies a large area in strategic Basra
province, home to Iraq's main port at the head of the Gulf and major oil
installations.
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- The no-fly zones, which Baghdad does not recognize, were
imposed to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in
the south from possible attacks by the Iraqi government.
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- Exchanges have increased sharply in recent months with
the threat of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq to remove President Saddam
Hussein from power.
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- Washington accuses Saddam of developing weapons of mass
destruction, a charge Iraq has repeatedly denied.
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