US aircraft attacked air defence targets in a northern "no-fly" zone of Iraq yesterday, the first such raids since US and British jets struck targets near Baghdad last week, the US military said.
US military sources in Germany said the attack was launched after the aircraft were targeted by anti-aircraft guns and Iraqi radar around Mosul.
Most of the guided bombs fired by US aircraft last week against Iraqi radar stations veered to the left and missed their targets by as much as 100 yards, the Washington Post said yesterday, quoting US navy officials.
Twenty-five bombs, known as the AGM-154A "Joint Standoff Weapon", were fired at Iraqi radar station components on Friday: eight targets were damaged, eight escaped damage and the remainder lacked verifiable satellite imagery, the officials said.
Some of the bombs fell "tens of yards" from their "aimpoints", one officials said, while another said he had been told the bombs missed their targets by an average of more than 100 yards.
The bombs, which according to the daily were first used in combat two years ago, were likely to have had a software glitch that threw off their guidance system, since they all missed their targets by consistently veering to the left before impact, the officials said.