Western raid kills two civilians, wounds 19 in Iraq

Residents clear debris on Saturday from around homes hit by an allied airstrike the previous day in Samawa

SAMAWA, Iraq (Reuters) -- U.S. and British planes bombed a civilian government warehouse in southern Iraq overnight, killing two civilians and wounding 19, Iraqi witnesses said on Saturday.

A Reuters photographer said the raid struck a warehouse containing building material in Samawa, 270 kms (175 miles) south of Baghdad.

He said part of the warehouse was destroyed while rooms used to store food and six nearby houses were badly damaged. There were no Iraqi military units in the area but the photographer reported U.S. or British planes flying over the site some 16 hours after the strike.

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Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh told reporters in Baghdad that the warehouse and storage rooms contained food and other material imported under the oil-for-food programme with the United Nations.

"This is another criminal act...against a facility providing food and services to the people of Muthana province," Saleh said. He said Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who house U.S. and British bases, were partners in the raid.

A resident said the planes struck at 11 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Friday, firing around a dozen rockets.

An Iraqi military statement said its air-defence units fired on the planes and forced them to return to the "bases of treason" in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

There was no immediate comment from London or Washington on the bombing, the first on Iraq in six weeks.

U.S. and British planes patrol no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq set up after the 1991 Gulf War. The zones, which Baghdad does not recognise, were imposed to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shi'ite Moslems in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi govenment forces.

The planes have been bombing targets in the zones frequently since Baghdad stepped up its defiance of the Western-imposed restrictions in December 1998. Iraq says around 300 civilians have been killed and 900 wounded in these attacks.

Iraq criticised fellow Arab states Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on Saturday for providing bases for the planes that patrol the southern no-fly zone.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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