Friday February 16 2:23 PM ET
U.S., British Planes Hit Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and British war planes struck Iraqi air defense facilities south of Baghdad on Friday, hitting targets outside the no-fly zone, the Pentagon said.

The Defense Department said aircraft from the two countries struck Iraqi radar systems at about 12:15 p.m. in retaliation for increased Iraqi anti-aircraft activity.

It was the third attack on Iraqi targets by U.S. and British planes in the last week.

Defense officials said it was the first time that they had struck north of the no-fly zone, bounded by the 33rd parallel, since Operation Desert Fox in December 1998, when targets in many parts of Iraq were hit.

The new U.S. administration of President George W. Bush has said it will take a tougher line against Baghdad, which it believes is still working to develop weapons of mass destruction, to prevent it from threatening its neighbors.

``The reason we did this is over the past month and a half or so, we've seen an increase in Iraqi activity in trying to target coalition planes over the southern no-fly zone,'' a Pentagon official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

``Not only an increase in activity but it appeared to be better coordinated from a command and control standpoint,'' he said.

``Therefore we felt it gave an increased vulnerability to our forces operating over the south and we wanted to strike that integrated air defense system and the command and control system that supported that to kind of roll that capability back and make it a little bit safer for coalition air forces,'' the official said.

No-fly zones were established in northern and southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, mainly to protect Iraqi minority groups from military attack by the forces of President Saddam Hussein.

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