U.S., British planes strike Iraq targets

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. and British warplanes bombed anti-aircraft artillery in Iraq's southern no-fly zone Thursday "in response to recent Iraqi hostile threats against coalition aircraft conducting routine" patrols of southern Iraq, the Pentagon announced.

Iraq followed quickly with the claim that its air defense forces hit two coalition aircraft in the southern no-fly zone Thursday, according to the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Coalition aircraft also bombed an anti-aircraft site in southern Iraq on Tuesday.

The news release issued Thursday by the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, sounded an unusual chord stating, "If Iraq were to cease its threatening actions, Coalition strikes would cease."

"To date there have been more than 1,030 separate incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed against Coalition aircraft since December 1998, including more than 400 this calendar year," the statement said.

"Iraqi aircraft violated the Southern No-Fly Zone more than 160 times during the same period," it added.