UK and US attack Iraqi missile site

British and US warplanes bombed an Iraqi surface-to-air missile system as soon as it was moved into the southern no fly zone today.

The missile system was near Al Amarah, about 165 miles south-east of Baghdad and inside the zone set up and patrolled by coalition aircraft over the last decade to keep Iraqi forces from flying there.

Iraq says the patrols violate its sovereignty and its forces frequently shoot at allied pilots both in the northern zone set up to protect the Kurdish minority and the southern zone to protect Shiites.

It was unclear whether the missile system had been fired on allied planes, but US officials have said in the past that the mere presence of such air defence systems is a threat to pilots monitoring the zones.

“Coalition strikes in the no-fly zones are executed as a self-defence measure in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts against coalition forces and their aircraft,” said a statement from US Central Command.

Though the hostilities are now almost routine, they come as the Bush administration plans a possible war against Iraq to force it to give up weapons of mass destruction.