RELATED DISCUSSION Strikes on Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq said on Saturday three civilians were killed and many others injured when Western warplanes attacked a "civilian installation" in the south of the country.

It did not specify what type of buildings had been hit.

The deaths occurred in an attack on Nasiriya, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Basrah, an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement.

There was no statement from U.S. military officials about possible damage or casualities.

In Washington, the Defense Department said U.S. military jets on Saturday attacked two Iraqi anti-aircraft missile sites in the country's southern no-fly zone.

One of the anti-aircraft missile sites had fired on coalition aircraft patrolling the area, Defense Department officials said.

The U.S. aircraft used precision-guided missiles and returned safely to their bases in Southwest Asia, U.S. military officials said

More than 90 no-fly zone violations by Iraq's military have been reported since the United States and Britain launched four days of intensive airstrikes on Iraq in December.

Coalition forces have responded by attacking more than 40 targets in both the northern and southern no-fly zones.

Iraqi Culture and Information Minister Human Abdul-Khaleg Abdul-Ghafur said Saturday that his country would continue to defy the two no-fly zones, imposed by coalition forces after the Persian Gulf War to protect the Kurdish enclave in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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