Western Air Attack Kills Three Iraqi Civilians

15/04/2001| IslamWeb

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Western air raids on southern Iraq overnight killed three civilians and wounded 15, the Iraqi army said on Wednesday.``The enemy attacked civilian and infrastructure targets in Basra and Thi Qar provinces, killing three citizens and wounding 15,'' a military communiqu said.
Iraqi television showed the funerals of two men from the remote village of al-Ahrar it described as victims of the raids. (Read photo caption)
Baghdad says more than 300 civilians have been killed in similar strikes designed to bolster the ``no-fly zones'' declared by the United States and Britain in northern and southern Iraq.
The Pentagon said U.S. warplanes had attacked Iraqi military installations on Tuesday afternoon Washington time.
The United States and Britain have stepped up raids this month on what they describe as upgraded Iraqi air defenses in the southern ``no-fly zone.''
The United States lost an unmanned Predator reconnaissance plane over southern Iraq on Monday. Iraq said it downed the 3.3 million plane as it was identifying targets for Western planes.
The U.S. and British aircraft police two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, defined in 1991 to protect their mainly Kurdish and Shi'ite Muslim populations from what the allies describe as military threats from Baghdad.
``U.S. planes are attacking our civilian and military installations, killing innocent civilians,'' al-Iraq, an official newspaper, said on Wednesday. ``The cover of international legitimacy used by the United States is beginning to unravel.''
PHOTO CAPTION:
Baghdad says the latest US air strikes in southern Iraq have killed two civilians in a remote village, far from any defence installation.The official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said two men, Dheif Ali and Idan Kadhem, died and houses were destroyed in the village of al-Ahrar when the planes struck at 2230 local time (1830 GMT) on Tuesday. The Pentagon had earlier reported mounting the strikes which, it said, were aimed at military installations.