KURDISTAN NEWSLINE

U.S. Planes Attack Iraqi Communications Site

Kurdistan Newsline 24-Jul-02

Baghdad, July 24 – In response to recent instances of Iraqi air defense forces using radar and antiaircraft guns against U.S. and British planes that monitor a "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq, U.S. warplanes bombed a military communications site near Diwaniyah, about 80 miles southeast of Baghdad. The U.S. Central Command said Monday's attack, and a similar one last Thursday against the same communications target, were acts of self-defense.

 

U.S. and British fighter jets have enforced no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq since shortly after the 1991 Gulf War. They are intended to prevent Iraqi government forces from attacking the people of Kurdistan region and Shiite Muslims in the south.