American and British warplanes bombed southern Iraq for the second straight day today in response to what the US military said were attempts to shoot down jets policing a "no-fly" zone.
In a statement, the US military's Central Command said western aircraft attacked an air defence operations center near al Kut, southeast of the capital Baghdad and left the area safely.
The strike, which occurred around 11.20 GMT, followed attacks yesterday against two anti-aircraft missile sites near al Kut and a military air defense command post in Tallil in southern Iraq, according to the Central Command.
The number of incidents involving U.S. and British air patrols over no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq has risen sharply in recent months as speculation has grown that the United States could launch an invasion to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The warplanes have now attacked Iraqi air defences in the zones 55 times this year. Forty-two of those attacks have come in the southern zone.
An Iraqi military spokesman, quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), had said earlier that Wednesday's attacks were against "civilian installations" in the provinces of Wassit and Dhi qar. Al Kut is in Wassit province.
Iraq does not recognize the zones, set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south from attack by Saddam's military.
Iraq often accuses Western patrols of attacking civilian targets and killing innocent people. Washington and London deny the charge.