Coalition planes hit sites in Iraq

From Mike Mount
CNN

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Coalition aircraft patrolling Iraq's southern "no-fly" zone attacked several military targets Wednesday in response to hostile actions, U.S. military officials said.

U.S. Central Command said the strikes followed ground fire from Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery and also were in response to Iraq's moving surface-to-air missiles to a region prohibited by a U.N. mandate.

The missile batteries had been relocated below the border of the southern "no-fly" zone imposed on Iraq, according to a Central Command statement.

Coalition aircraft, including U.S. Navy F-18E Super Hornets, used precision-guided weapons to target two surface-to-air missile systems and a command and control communications facility about 6:30 a.m. ET, according to a Pentagon official.

The missile systems were near Al Kut, Iraq, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, and the command-and-control facility was near Tallil, about 160 miles southeast of Baghdad, the statement said.

An Iraqi military spokesman quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency said U.S. and British planes bombed "civilian installations" in the provinces of Wassit and Dhi qar. Al Kut is in Wassit province.

The last coalition strike on Iraq came October 22 against a command and control communications facility near Al Jarrah and an air-defense operations center near Tallil.

Wednesday's attacks by the Super Hornets were the first combat activity seen by the Navy's newest attack jets.

The Super Hornets are stationed on the USS Lincoln, currently in the Persian Gulf.

The jets have made numerous flights patrolling the skies over Afghanistan since the Lincoln's arrival in the Arabian Sea, but had not engaged any targets during that time.

Pentagon officials could not say if Wednesday's attacks also involved Predator unmanned aerial vehicles. The surveillance planes, operated by remote control, were recently upgraded to include weapons and approved for deployment.

U.S. and British aircraft have enforced "no-fly" zones -- which Iraq does not recognize -- in northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991 to protect Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by the Iraqi government.

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