US jets step up operations in no-fly zones

American fighter jets have stepped up operations in the northern and southern no-fly zones of Iraq, possibly preparing the ground for an invasion.

Surface-to-surface missile systems were destroyed in the southern zone as well as the surface-to-air and communications systems that have been hit in the past.

Senior US officials said the range of targets had been expanded because those missiles threatened American and British troops massing in Kuwait.

Three mobile air defence radar units and an anti-aircraft missile system were also knocked out in the south, US Central Command said.

US pilots struck the equipment after Iraq moved it into the southern no-fly zone near An Nasiriyah, 170 miles south-east of the capital Baghdad.

US and British war planes – dubbed the “ravens of evil” by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein – have patrolled the northern and southern zones since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq does not recognise the no-fly zones, which were set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect opposition Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraq frequently fires at the US and British planes patrolling the zones. Iraq has never shot down a piloted plane in a no-fly zone.

Two Iraqi MiG-25 fighter jets entered the southern no-fly zone separately last week – apparently trying to test US responses or look for surveillance drones, US military officials said.

The MiG-25s flew no more than 70 miles into the no-fly zone before looping around to return to an Iraqi air base north of the zone, the officials said. The Iraqi flights did not come close to Iraq’s borders with Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.

One air strike in the southern zone – an attack on two air defence communications sites – was a direct response to the MiG flights, US Central Command said.

The multiple Iraqi penetrations of the no-fly zone were the first since December. An Iraqi MiG-25 shot down a pilot-less Predator surveillance drone on December 23. The latest flights also could have been new attempts to shoot down another Predator, officials said.