US warplanes today attacked an air defence target in a "no-fly" zone in southern Iraq in response to attempts to shoot down US and British jets, the US military said.
The Pentagon said it was the 37th such strike against air defences in northern and southern no-fly zones of Iraq this year.
Those attacks have increased in recent months as speculation has mounted that the United States might invade Baghdad to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The US Central Command said from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, that the jets launched bombs against the base near Al Amarah, about 273 kilometres southeast of Baghdad at 1.30 a.m. (6.30 a.m. Irish time).
It did not say how many planes were involved in the raid.
