U.S. planes bomb northern Iraqi missile sites

February 11, 1999
Web posted at: 10:44 a.m. EST (1544 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Air Force fighter jets bombed military sites in Iraq's northern "no-fly" zone on Thursday, the U.S. European Command said.

The attacks came after an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle flight observed Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery fire and was illuminated by an Iraqi radar system, according to U.S. military officials.

The targets near the city of Mosul included an Iraqi missile communications site, a surface-to-air missile system and a radar site, the officials said in a statement. The U.S. planes returned safely to their base after the attacks, and damage to the targets still was being assessed.

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U.S. and British forces have hammered Iraqi radar and air- defense sites in the northern and southern no-fly zones since the United States and Britain unleashed intensive airstrikes on Iraq in December.

The allies set up the no-fly zones after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to protect Iraqi Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from attacks by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's army.

The U.S. and British warplanes patrolling the no-fly zones are based in Incirlik in southern Turkey.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz plans to visit Turkey on Monday, and is expected to press that country to stop allowing the U.S. and British forces from using the Turkish base.

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