October 25, 1999
Web posted at: 1:13 p.m. EDT (1713 GMT)

MOSUL, Iraq (CNN) -- Two people were killed and seven others injured Monday by Western aircraft in the northern no-fly zone of Iraq, Iraqi officials said.

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Situation in Iraq

The U.S. European Command said that planes patrolling the no-fly zone dropped precision-guided munitions on a surface-to-air missile storage facility south of Mosul.

The command said it fired on the area after Iraqi forces fired anti-aircraft artillery "numerous times" at its aircraft.

An Iraqi military spokesman said Iraqi ground defenses challenged the planes and drove them off. He also said other Western planes flew over areas in the south, but did not say if there were any casualties there.

U.S. and British planes patrol no-fly zones over Iraq's north and south. The zones were imposed by the West after the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait to protect opponents of President Saddam Hussein.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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