Western planes bomb northern Iraq for second day

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) -- U.S. and British planes bombed targets in northern Iraq Monday in the second straight day of raids, an Iraqi military spokesman said.

The spokesman, quoted by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), said ten "enemy formations" flew over the provinces of Duhouk, Arbil and Nineveh at 11:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. EDT), attacking civilian and service installations.

MESSAGE BOARD Situation in Iraq

He did not mention any casualties, but said Iraqi air defense units fired on the jets and forced them to return to their bases in Turkey.

Iraq said U.S. and British planes attacked civilian and service installations north of Nineveh province Sunday.

There was no immediate comment on the reports from Washington or London.

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 recognize, were imposed to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi government forces.

Baghdad said in a letter circulated at the United Nations on Monday that raiding U.S. and British warplanes had killed 311 Iraqis in southern Iraq and injured another 927 since December 1998.

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For more Middle East news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

See related sites about Middle East

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.