US bombs Iraqi missile sites

WASHINGTON -- American warplanes bombed surface-to-surface missile systems in northern and southern Iraq Tuesday and also attacked surface-to-air missiles in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said.\nU.S. planes struck the missile systems because they threatened coalition forces that are enforcing no-fly zones and assembling in Kuwait for a possible war with Iraq, military statements said. The strikes were the most extensive on a single day since the U.N. Security Council in November passed its latest resolution demanding that Iraq disarm.\nThe latest airstrike came at about 9:45 a.m. Bloomington time Tuesday, when American planes bombed a mobile surface-to-surface missile system near Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, a U.S. Central Command statement said. Basra is about 35 miles from Iraq's border with Kuwait, where tens of thousands of U.S. and British troops are gathering to prepare for a possible war.\nIn the north, American jets used precision-guided weapons to attack three surface-to-surface missile systems just south of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a statement from the U.S. European Command. The statement said the missiles were in range to threaten coalition forces, which are based in Turkey. Mosul is about 70 miles from Iraq's border with Turkey.\nThe northern strike targeted mobile missile launchers known as "transporter-erector-launcher" vehicles, Pentagon officials said. Iraq is believed to have used similar mobile launchers to fire the dozens of Scud missiles it launched against Israel and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War.\nU.S. and British planes have been enforcing a no-fly zone north of the 36th parallel since the aftermath the of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The zones are meant to keep Saddam Hussein's military from attacking opposition Kurdish forces in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south.\nThe last U.S. airstrike in northern Iraq occurred on Jan. 31, when U.S. jets struck Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery. Strikes in the south have been more frequent, with the latest coming Sunday when U.S. planes attacked six air defense communications sites.