British jet attacks Iraqi southern no-fly zone

March 4, 1999
Web posted at: 2:56 p.m. EST (1956 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A British jet attacked an Iraqi military radar site in the southern no-fly zone on Thursday, the U.S. military said.

The attack by a British Tornado jet occurred about 15 miles south of the town of Al-Basarah near Ash Shuaybah and was in response to two Iraqi violations in the no-fly zone, said a statement from the U.S. Central Command.

"The strikes were in response to two Iraqi violations of the southern no-fly zone and aircraft illuminations by Iraqi surface-to-air missiles," the statement said.

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On Monday, U.S. jets dropped more than 30 bombs on radio relay sites, communications targets and air defense guns in Iraq's northern no-fly zone.

Monday's strikes were among the heaviest in two months. They came the day after U.S. jets struck a communications facility in the north, and apparently interrupted the flow of Iraqi oil through a pipeline into Turkey.

U.S. and British planes, which patrol the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, have been reporting incidents with Iraq and striking Iraqi military sites on an almost daily basis since late December.

The zones were set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurdish rebels in the north and Shiite Muslim insurgents in the south from Iraqi forces.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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