'23 Iraqis die in air raids'

BAGHDAD: Iraq on Wednesday said 23 people died and 11 were wounded in Western air raids on a northern Iraqi town on Tuesday, but Britain and the United States denied they had launched any attack. The Iraqi news agency INA said U.S. and British warplanes raided Talafar district near the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. INA said the victims were playing football at a field at the time of the attack. The Pentagon and Britain's Ministry of Defence denied the Iraqi claim. ``If this refers to yesterday (Tuesday) then there is no truth in this,'' a Ministry spokesman said in London. ``We did not drop any weapons yesterday - that goes for the British and Americans.'' Iraq said in an earlier statement that anti- aircraft defences had hit one of a group of U.S. and British planes as they patrolled a no-fly zone over the north of the country. Britain denied that report the same day. U.S. and British planes patrol no-fly zones set up after the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991 to protect Kurdish dissidents in northern Iraq and anti-Baghdad Shi'ite Muslims in the south from attack by Baghdad forces. Iraq does not recognise the no-fly zones and vowed in 1998 to challenge the patrols with anti- aircraft installations.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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