Aircraft taking part in US-British patrols attacked Iraqi missile systems in the southern "no-fly" zone today, the US military said.
Pentagon officials said the jets launched guided weapons against two Iraqi mobile surface-to-air missile systems located near Basra, about 245 miles southeast of Baghdad. It was the fifth strike on Iraqi targets in a week.
"The coalition executed today's strike after Iraqi forces moved the . . . system into the southern no-fly-zone," the US Central Command said.
US and British jets have been increasingly attacking Iraqi air defence missiles, radar and communications over the past few months in northern and southern "no-fly" zones of that country.
The strikes came as US and British forces massed in the Gulf region for a possible invasion of Iraq.