Iraq Says 5 Killed, 17 Hurt in Western Attack
By Hassan Hafidh

July 19, 2002


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said on Friday U.S. and British planes
attacked civilian targets killing five people and wounding 17 others
in the south of the country on Thursday.

"At 11:15 p.m. local time yesterday evil American and British
warplanes violated our airspace coming from Saudi Arabia and carried
out 34 sorties," an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement on
the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).

A statement on the Web Site for U.S. Central Command in Florida, which
overseas U.S. military activity in the Gulf area, said coalition
aircraft struck a military target in the southern "no-fly" zone with
precision-guided weapons.

"In response to recent Iraqi hostile acts against Coalition aircraft
monitoring the Southern No-Fly Zone, Operation SOUTHERN WATCH
Coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons today to strike a
military cable repeater station in southern Iraq..."

Britain's Ministry of Defense said it had nothing to add to the U.S.
statement.

Military activity in the region has become more frequent in recent
months amid speculation that the United States might invade Iraq to
oust President Saddam Hussein, whose country has the second largest
oil reserves in the world and who is accused by the United States of
developing weapons of mass destruction.

British and U.S. planes patrol two "no-fly" zones set up after the
1991 Gulf War in northern and southern Iraq.

Baghdad does not recognize the zones which the United States and
Britain say were imposed to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and
Shi'ite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi government
forces.

Western planes have frequently bombed targets in the "no-fly" zones
since Baghdad stepped up its defiance of the restrictions in December
1998.

"The enemy attacked civilian installations in the province of
Qadissiya (Diwaniya), killing five citizens and wounding 17 others,"
the Iraqi spokesman said.

He said a house was destroyed and another was damaged during the
attack in the center of Diwaniya city, some 180 km (110 miles) south
of Baghdad.

The U.S. Central Command said it never targets civilian populations or
infrastructure and that strikes in the "no-fly" zones are executed as
a self-defense measure in response to hostile Iraqi threats and acts
against Coalition forces.

"The last Coalition strike in the Southern No-Fly Zone was against a
mobile radar unit associated with a mobile surface-to-air missile
launcher on July 14, 2002," it said.

But a senior ruling Baath Party official said that there was no Iraqi
military activity in the area where Western planes dropped their
guided missiles.

"The evil American administration has yet added another crime to their
record which is full of crimes when it attacked a residential quarter
where there is no military activity...," Muhssein al-Khafaji told
Iraqi television.

Khafaji said a family, consisting of a child and her father and
mother, were killed during the assault. The two other victims were
from the next house, he said.

The television showed pictures of destroyed houses and rescue teams
were digging to take out the victims and save the wounded. It also
showed some of the wounded laying in a near-by hospital.

It said a funeral procession organized in the main street of Diwaniya
on Friday where participants shouted anti-American and British
slogans.

The television said that the people in the province condemned the
United States and Britain and expressed support for the leadership of
President Saddam Hussein to defend Iraq.

Friday's assault was the third reported by Iraq in a week. Baghdad
said one civilian was killed and 13 others wounded in two raids by
U.S. and British planes on civilian targets in the south of the
country on Saturday and Sunday.

The U.S. military said U.S. planes bombed Iraqi air defense facilities
after coalition aircraft came under fire and were threatened by Iraqi
air-defense units.

Saddam said on Wednesday in a televised speech marking Iraq's July 17
revolution that Washington and its allies would not be able to topple
his government.