Coalition jets bomb Iraqi targets

US and British planes enforcing the no-fly zone in northern Iraq have launched air raids after they were "threatened" from ground radar bases, US officials have said.

Iraq accused the coalition jets of bombing civilian targets in what is the first such attack in the north of the country since February.

Iraqi radar at air defence sites east of the city of Mosul locked onto the aircraft while they were out on a routine patrol, US European Central Command said in a statement.

British Jaguar aircraft on patrol

In response, coalition warplanes dropped "precision ordnance" on Iraqi air bases, it said, adding that all the jets had returned safely from their missions.

"The enemy attacked our civilian and service installations in Nineveh province," an Iraqi military spokesman quoted by the state news agency said.

He did not report any casualties from the strikes, which were carried out during what he said were eight sorties by the Turkey-based coalition aircraft.

Reuters news agency reported that US and British planes also bombed targets in southern Iraq earlier this week.

The bombing comes amid speculation that fresh military action against Iraq will form the next part of the US-led war on terror.

'Civilian deaths'

The two no-fly zones over Iraq were imposed by the US, Britain and France after the Gulf War, in what was described as a humanitarian effort to protect Shia Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north.

US and British planes patrol the region to enforce the restrictions.

UN weapons inspectors withdrew from Iraq shortly before coalition air strikes on Baghdad in December 1998.

Since then, the two Western powers have kept up their attacks whenever Iraqi air defences have locked onto aircraft in the no-fly zones.

Baghdad says more than 300 civilians have died in total in these attacks.

The US and British air forces have disputed this figure and insist that they never target civilian areas.