BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said U.S. and British planes attacked targets in the south of the country on Saturday, but no casualties were reported. (Read map caption below)
``At 4 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT) U.S. and British warplanes carried out 11 sorties coming from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and flew over the provinces of Basra, Dhiqar, Muthanna and Meisan,'' an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency.
He said the planes attacked civilian installations in Dhiqar (Nasiriya) province, but were forced to return to their bases by Iraqi air-defense fire.
The spokesman said other Western planes based in Turkey flew over northern Iraqi provinces, but no incident was reported.
There was no immediate word from the United States or Britain. Their jets patrol no-fly zones set up after the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991 to protect a Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq and Shi'ite Muslims in the south from attack by Iraqi forces.
Iraq said on Wednesday its air defenses had shot down a third American unmanned plane over the southern fly zone. The U.S. military acknowledged the RQ-1B drone was missing.
Incidents involving U.S. and British planes have become common since 1998 when Iraq, which does not recognize the no-fly zones, said it would begin to ``challenge'' the patrols with its anti-aircraft installations.
U.S. and British military officials say Western planes fire at Iraqi anti-aircraft units when fired at or when pilots detect Iraqi radar locked onto their aircraft.
MAP CAPTION:
Iraq said U.S. and British planes attacked targets in the south of the country October 13, 2001. "At 4 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT) U.S. and British warplanes carried out 11 sorties coming from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and flew over the provinces of Basra, Dhiqar, Muthanna and Meisan,' an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency. (USGS/Reuters Graphic)