Iraqi air defences attacked again

American and British warplanes have attacked air defence sites in southern Iraq.

The United States defence department said the action was carried out at two sites south-east of Baghdad in response to recent hostile threats.

A Pentagon spokesman said the air strikes had nothing to do with last week's suicide plane attacks in New York and Washington.

The BBC Defence Correspondent says the action was part of routine allied monitoring of the air exclusion zones set up after the Gulf War.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service