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Iraq Claims 7 Civilians Killed
In US-British Air Raids

From Milt
Zodiacwks@aol.com
11-16-2

BAGHDAD (AFP) -- US and British warplanes killed seven Iraqis and wounded four others in air raids on "civilian installations" in the southern province of Najaf, a military spokesman said Saturday.
 
"Seven civilians were killed and four others wounded" in the raid by US and British planes on Friday night in Najaf province, some 200 km south of Baghdad, the spokesman said, cited by the state INA news agency.
 
"The American and British murderers have committed a new crime against the Iraqi people," he said.
 
The planes, based in Kuwait, carried out 48 sorties against several targets in the south, he added.
 
"Our missile batteries and anti-aircraft defences resisted these planes, forcing them to flee to their bases," he said.
 
The Pentagon had said on Friday that US warplanes bombed an air defence communications facility in southern Iraq after coalition aircraft came under Iraqi fire in what it described as a violation of last week's UN Security Council resolution.
 
The US Central Command said the target of the strike was an air defence communications facility in Najaf.
 
A defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said US warplanes have come under surface-to-air fire from Iraqi forces 11 times since UN Security Council Resolution 1441 was passed November 8.
 
Besides setting out the terms of new UN arms inspections, the resolution ordered Iraq not to take or threaten hostile acts against any member state "taking action to uphold any council resolution."
 
The latest US air strike was the second since the resolution was unanimously approved by the 15-member UN Security Council.
 
Iraq has routinely fired on US and British aircraft over southern and northern Iraq since 1998, when it shut down the first UN arms inspection regime.
 
The no-fly zones were imposed by the Western powers after the 1991 Gulf War to stop Iraqi attacks on Shiite Muslim and Kurdish minorities but are not explicitly covered by any UN resolution.







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