Iraq names two victims of Allied air strikes

Iraq's state-run media has named two people as victims of the largest attack by US and British warplanes in two years.

Sirens started wailing at about 9pm (1800 Irish time) on Friday, followed soon after by explosions from anti-aircraft weaponry from the southern and western outskirts of Baghdad.

The official Iraqi News Agency quotes health ministry officials as saying a woman called Ghayda Atshaan Abdullah and a man named Khalil Hameed Alwash died and 20 other people were injured.

Health Minister Omed Medhat Mubarak said: "It is another aggression on Baghdad that resulted in the injury of many women, children and elderly. Some of them are in critical condition".

During the air strikes, some residents of the capital - which had not heard air raid sirens in two years - huddled together in fear in their houses. Others, however, ventured out to watch the sky.

Samih Jamal, a 54-year-old retired government worker, asked: "How many times do they destroy what they themselves said they have already destroyed?"

President Saddam Hussein chaired a joint meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and Iraq's regional command of al-Baath Party late yesterday.

A statement issued after the meeting claimed the air attack was proof the United States and "the Zionist entity" - Iraq's term for Israel - are "partners in evil and aggression".

"They thought they would scare Iraq, but they are wrong.

"The more they continue their aggression, the stronger the Iraqi people will be in facing them. We shall fight them on ground, sky and sea and their aggression will deepen their failure," it said.

Two dozen warplanes fired long-range missiles targeting radar systems to the south and north of the capital, according to the US Defence Department, which said Iraq had become increasingly threatening towards patrolling Allied aircraft.