Three Iraqi civilians were killed when US and British warplanes bombed targets in a southern "no-fly" zone overnight, the Iraqi military claimed today
The United States denied the report.
An Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement the aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone hit civilian targets in the Anbar province, killing three. It said Iraqi forces fired at the planes before they returned to bases in Kuwait.
"This is yet another example of the Iraqi propaganda machine putting out absolute untruths," Marine Captain Stewart Upton said at Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar.
"The target was in fact a military target," he said. Asked how the US military would know it had not killed civilians, Capt Upton said: "Intelligence enables us to see the damage assessment in real time."
He repeated that coalition aircraft never target civilians. He said the target was a surface-to-air missile system and an anti-aircraft artillery site.
The attacks were the latest in an increasing number of western air attacks in no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq as the United States and Britain build up a force for possible invasion.
Iraq said on Monday six civilians were killed and 15 wounded in a raid near Basra. US officials denied the Iraqi report.
The no-fly zones were set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurds in northern Iraq and Shi'ite Muslims in the south from Baghdad's forces. Iraq does not recognise the zones.
US defence officials said warplanes taking part in US-British patrols over "no-fly" zones in Iraq had increased flights over the southern zone in recent days to confuse air defences ahead of a possible US-led invasion.
One official noted the United States had deployed hundreds of extra naval and other attack aircraft to the Gulf since early January in a massive military build-up in the region.