Western warplanes bomb Iraq no-fly zone, U.S. says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Western warplanes on Monday attacked military air defense targets in a no-fly zone in northern Iraq after Iraqi forces fired anti-aircraft guns at planes patrolling the area, the U.S. military said.

All of the U.S. and British planes involved in the exchange returned safely to their base in nearby Turkey, according to a statement released by the U.S. military's European Command based in Germany.

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The statement said that the air attacks occurred after Iraqi forces fired anti-aircraft guns at the planes from sites north of the city of Mosul.

U.S. and British warplanes have patrolled no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq for almost a decade since the 1991 Gulf War. The zones, no longer recognized by Baghdad, were set up by western allies to protect Kurds and Shiite Muslims from attack by the military forces of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein.

The warplanes have routinely bombed Iraqi air defenses in retaliation for what Washington and London have called repeated challenges to the presence of the western warplanes.

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