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Monday May 31 7:18 AM ET
U.S. Says Jet Bombed Radar Site In North Iraq
ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes attacked Iraqi air defenses near Mosul
Monday after being fired on by anti-aircraft guns
and targeted by radar in the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, a statement
from the jets' base in southern Turkey said.
``All coalition aircraft departed the area safely,'' the statement said.
Air strikes on targets in northern Iraq and in a no-fly zone in the south
of Iraq have become a regular occurrence since
December when Baghdad began actively challenging the patrols.
The U.S.-British Operation Northern Watch operates out of Turkey's Incirlik
airbase some 340 miles from the Iraqi border.
The force is designed to protect the mainly Kurdish population north of the
36th parallel from air attack by Iraqi government
forces.
Most of the area is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish groups who slipped
from Baghdad's control in the aftermath of the 1991
Gulf War, but the Iraqi government retains a triangle of territory around
the city of Mosul.
Turkey's permission is needed for any planned strikes against Iraq from its
territory, but planes flying from Incirlik are
allowed to fire in self-defense against any threat, including being tracked
by radar.
