Iraq protests against US air strike

Iraq has complained to the United Nations after a US air strike in the south of the country that it claims killed three people and injured 16.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said the attack was a material breach of UN Security Council resolutions.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Sabri described the strike on St Stephen's Day as “a barbaric and terrorist act, with a direct participation of the rulers of Kuwait”.

He said the imposition of the no-fly zone by the US and Britain is a challenge to international law and the UN Charter.

The letter was dated December 30, but it was faxed to The Associated Press office in Baghdad today.

The official Iraqi News Agency said last week that three civilians were killed and 16 others wounded in an attack by American and British warplanes on “civil and service installations” in Basra and Nasiryah provinces.

The US military has said the attack targeted Iraqi military command and communications sites in southern Iraq in a “self-defence” measure that came in response to the Iraqi military’s downing of an American unmanned surveillance drone three days earlier.

The no-fly zones were set up soon after the 1991 Gulf War to protect minority Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from Iraqi government forces.

Iraq does not recognise the zones and routinely challenges the American and British aircraft patrolling them. US and British planes frequently fire back.