British and US planes have bombed a surface-to-air missile installation in southern Iraq.
They dropped four bombs on the complex near Al-Amarah about 180 miles south-east of Baghdad, the British Ministry of Defence said.
An MoD spokesman said the attack was believed to have been successful, the bombs all landed on or near their target and there was no collateral damage.
The missile complex was attacked in self-defence after allied planes patrolling the no-fly zone in southern Iraq were recently fired upon, he said.
"We attacked a surface-to-air missile installation in self-defence," said the spokesman.
"We will only take action if our aircraft are fired on. If they fire on us we will take action against them and that may not necessarily be immediately. Battle damage assessment is still going on but we think the attack has been successful.
"We understand from information we have that all the weapons either landed on or close to the target and there is no evidence of any collateral damage."
The attack was carried out by RAF Tornados, US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and US Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets.
US military officials said the attack was sparked by recent firing of surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery by the Iraqis in the no-fly zone.
The Iraqis are thought to have fired on US and British planes more than 220 times since the start of this year.
PA