IRAQ: Iraq has said US warplanes raided Basra civilian airport and damaged its radar system, in the latest attack by Western jets enforcing no-fly zones over Iraq.
The United States confirmed it attacked the airport, saying it had targeted military radar there.
Iraq's state-run satellite television quoted a government spokesman as saying the attack on the airport in Basra, 480 km southeast of Baghdad, took place on Wednesday night.
The airport occupies a large area in the strategic Basra province, home to Iraq's main port at the head of the Gulf and major oil installations.
"The raids destroyed the main radar system in the airport as well as damaging the main service building at the airport," the television station said.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said early damage assessments of the Basra attack showed US jets had destroyed the military radar that was the target of the raid.
"The Basra strike did take place at a civilian airfield but it was directed at a military radar located on the civilian airfield," Lieut Col Dave Lapan said. "The strike was directed at the radar, which has threatened coalition aircraft." He said US aircraft also struck a target near al Kufa, located about 130 km south of Baghdad.
US aircraft, along with British jets, police two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq set up after the 1991 Gulf War.
The zones, which Baghdad does not recognise, were imposed to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shia Muslims in the south from possible attacks by the Iraqi government.
The Iraqi News Agency reported that President Saddam Hussein chaired a meeting of top Iraqi officials hours after Wednesday's attack. INA said they discussed "the current political situation", but gave no further details.
It said Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Oil Minister Amir Muhammad Rasheed attended the meeting.
Exchanges have increased sharply in recent months as speculation has grown of a possible US attack against Baghdad to remove President Saddam from power.
It was the second attack on Basra airport's radar system. US F-16 warplanes destroyed the system last August.
US defence officials said at the time the warplanes attacked a military radar as part of a concerted strategy to destroy Iraq's air defences, which regularly fire at Western warplanes.
Baghdad said on Wednesday that US and British jets had attacked civilian targets in the south of the country the day before and one civilian had been wounded. - (Reuters)