The US army claimed Monday it has responded to Iraqi forces' firing of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) from sites northwest of Mosul while its jets enforcing the no-fly-zone there were conducting routine flights.
“Coalition aircraft responded to the Iraqi attacks by dropping ordnance on elements of the Iraqi integrated air defense system,” said a statement published on the US European Command’s website.
All coalition aircraft departed the area safely returning to their base in Incirlik in Turkey's southern province of Adana, said the statement.
There were no reports of casualties or injuries.
Some 40 British and US planes are based at Incirlik to patrol the northern no-fly zone imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War under the pretext of protecting the ethnic Kurdish population in the area.
A similar exclusion zone was also set up over southern Iraq to protect the Shiite Muslim population there and is patrolled by US and British aircraft based in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
On Saturday, an Iraqi civilian was killed and two wounded in an air strike over the south of the country, according to Baghdad. London denied any such strike took place, said AFP.
Iraq does not recognize the zones, which are not authorized by any specific UN resolution, and has regularly fired on aircraft patrolling them since joint US-British air raids on Baghdad in December 1998.
Iraq has repeatedly assailed its neighbors, Turkey, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for allowing such attack from their territories – Albawaba.com
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