Ananova : http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_369528.html US planes bomb targets in northern Iraq ============================ US Air Force planes have bombed an air defence site in northern Iraq. The US European Command says the pilots acted in self defence after Iraq launched surface-to-air missiles. Officials deny it was a planned attack in response to the recent near-miss Iraqi attack on a US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane. European Command says the US aircraft, which flew from an air base in south-central Turkey, departed Iraqi airspace safely, after the incident near the city of Mosul. The Iraqi News Agency reported no casualties. It quoted an unidentified military spokesman as saying that "American and British warplanes bombed civil and service installations." "Our heroic missile units confronted the enemy warplanes, forcing them to leave our skies for Turkey," the spokesman said. President George W. Bush has vowed to keep Saddam Hussein's military ambitions "in check." He defended the missions as a necessary response to Iraqi provocations: "Saddam Hussein is a menace and we need to keep him in check and we will." "He's been a menace forever and he needs to open his country for inspection so we can see whether he is making weapons of mass destruction." Mr Bush said he had been briefed on the US retaliation: "The missions that took place were fully in accordance with established allied war plans." Story filed: 21:38 Tuesday 7th August 2001
