An Iraqi military spokesman, quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency INA, said: "American and British planes committed yet another crime against civilians when they bombed their tents in Nineveh province killing 12 citizens, injuring others and killing 200 head of livestock."

The attacks were said to have taken place near the city of Mosul.

The Combined Task Force of US and British forces, based at Incirlik in southern Turkey, said earlier that US planes had bombed several Iraqi missile sites on Wednesday in the northern "no-fly" zone.

This was the fourth time in a week that targets near Mosul have been hit by planes.

Iraqi officials have also said a strike on Sunday in the south of the country killed four people.

Regular attacks

US and British planes patrolling air-exclusion zones over northern and southern Iraq have fired on Iraqi forces on the ground several times a week since December, when the allies carried out four days of intensive bombing.

Iraq does not recognise the legitimacy of either of the air exclusion zones which are not covered by a specific United Nations resolution.

The allies imposed the no-fly zones unilaterally, saying this was to protect Shi'a and Kurdish minorities in Iraq.

But the US and Britain argue that they are empowered to act by more general resolutions passed after the Gulf War in 1991.

International attention has drifted away from the Iraqi crisis since the Nato air campaign against Yugoslavia began in March but the low-level military conflict continues alongside a political stalemate.