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U.S.-led coalition hits radar site at Iraqi airport


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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S.-led coalition aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone in Iraq struck a radar installation at the airport in Basra on Thursday, according to Iraqi and Pentagon officials.

Pentagon officials said the radar was on the military side of the dual-use airport, while a spokesman for the Iraqi Transport Ministry said it was the airport's civil aviation installation, used in landings and takeoffs of civil aircraft.

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CNN's Jamie McIntyre looks at the enforcement of no-fly zones over Iraq by the U.S. and Turkey. (October 10)
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The airport, located 245 miles southeast of Baghdad, remained open, according to Iraqi officials, who said flights from Baghdad to Basra had not been interrupted.

No deaths or injuries were reported.

Pentagon officials said the Basra airport radar was one of two Iraqi air defense sites to draw coalition airstrikes Thursday.

The second was a SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) site near Tallil, about 160 miles southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. officials said.

According to the U.S. Central Command, both strikes were in response to "hostile acts" by the Iraqi sites and occurred about 4 a.m. EDT.

U.S. and British aircraft have enforced no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 to protect Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by the Iraqi government.



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