April 2, 1999
Web posted at: 8:19 a.m. EST (1319 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government said U.S. and allied aircraft bombed a residential area in Iraq's southern "no-fly" zone Friday, wounding two people, but U.S. military officials denied the report.

Iraqi officials said the planes targeted "residential facilities" in southern Iraq from bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

"The aggressive planes flew over regions of Selman, Semawa, Deyawaniya, Najaf and Qarna and struck at residential areas in the area of Afak in the province of Qadisiyya," an Iraqi air defense spokesman told the Iraqi News Agency. "The aggressive strikes led to the destruction of two homes and wounded two citizens."

The Iraqi spokesman said the attacking planes were driven off by anti-aircraft missiles. But a U.S. military spokesman denied the INA report.

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"That doesn't agree at all with the information that we have, which is we are flying today and all is quiet," Capt. Michael Shavers, a U.S. military spokesman in Saudi Arabia, told CNN.

It was the first report of military action over Iraq in nearly two weeks.

The no-fly zones were set up over northern and southern Iraq in the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. U.S. and British aircraft patrol them to protect Iraq's Kurdish minority in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south.

Iraq announced in December that it would no longer recognize the no-fly zones and began targeting allied aircraft after a four-day allied bombing campaign. Coalition aircraft have responded by attacking anti-aircraft sites in what was a near-daily routine before the onset of NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia.

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