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* Iraq says two killed in air attack on Monday (BBC Online) * UN official visits site of deadly US air strike in Iraq (Agence France Presse) * U.N. cites airstrikes as hinderance to aid delivery in Iraq (Nando Times) ******************** BBC News Online, Monday, May 3, 1999 Published at 23:10 GMT 00:10 UK Iraq says two killed in air attack US say their planes bombed Iraqi missile sites in the northern no-fly zone. Iraq says two people were killed and another 12 wounded in western air attacks on Monday. It said the incident took place in Ninevah Province, about 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad. "One of our civil sites was attacked today by long-distance guided weapons and the bombing led to martyrdom of two civilian citizens and the injury of 12 others," the Iraqi News Agency INA quoted an Iraqi military spokesman as saying. A US statement issued earlier in Turkey said US warplanes flying from an air base in southern Turkey bombed Iraqi missile sites in the northern no-fly zone on Monday after being fired at. It said all planes left the area safely. Earlier, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Hans Von Sponeck, expressed concern about the continued British and American airstrikes. Mr Von Sponeck was speaking after a tour of the town of Bashiqa in northern Iraq. He also visited the site where a family of seven, along with 250 of their sheep, were reportedly killed in an attack by American and British planes. Mr Von Sponeck said he was deeply affected by what he saw and added that the airstrikes were affecting the UN's humanitarian programme in Iraq. Last week, the Iraqi news agency said 20 people were wounded in a bombing raid by Western aircraft in the north of the country. The report came shortly after United States forces based in southern Turkey announced that their aircraft had carried out attacks near the northern city of Mosul. The Americans said their planes struck at air defence sites after being targeted by Iraqi radar and fired on. Planes from the United States and Britain have been patrolling the skies over northern and southern Iraq since the Gulf War in 1991 to enforce a ban on Iraqi aircraft overflying the areas. There have been frequent attacks since December when Iraq began actively challenging US and British jets that patrol the no-fly zones to protect Kurds in the north and Shi'a Muslims in the south from possible attack by Baghdad's forces. ******************** Agence France Presse, May 03, 1999 Iraq-US-UN 13:21 GMT UN official visits site of deadly US air strike in Iraq BAGHDAD, May 3 - A senior UN official said Monday he visited the site of a US air strike in northern Iraq that killed a shepherd and six members of his family. Hans von Sponeck, the UN coordinator of humanitarian aid to Iraq, told reporters he was in northern Iraq and made "a spontaneous decision" to visit the site on Sunday. "I am extremely sensitive to the effect of increasing air strikes on the implementation of the humanitarian programmes" in sanctions-hit Iraq, he said. "We in the UN must not take lightly events like these which affect human life so, since I was in the area anyway, I made a spontaneous decision to make a site visit. I was deeply affected by what I saw -- the total destruction of a shepherd's family and all their possessions." Iraq said the family was killed last Friday when their tent was struck in a US air strike near the city of Mosul, a day after 20 people were injured in a raid on Mosul itself. In January, von Sponeck visited a district of the southern port city of Basra where 17 people were killed and 100 wounded in missile attacks. The United States said the missiles strayed off course. Iraq's ruling Baath party on Monday accused the United States of deliberately aiming to kill civilians in its almost daily air strikes. Since an air war in December, the United States and Britain have carried out regular raids in no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, while Baghdad has pledged to keep challenging the overflights. In April, at least 18 Iraqis were killed and more than 40 injured in the allied raids, according to Baghdad. ******************** U.N. cites airstrikes as hinderance to aid delivery in Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq (May 3, 1999 9:13 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The United Nations is worried that ongoing U.S. and British airstrikes on Iraq may hamper the delivery and distribution of aid in the country, the most senior U.N. relief worker in Iraq said Monday. Hans von Sponeck, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Sunday toured Bashiqa, a town north of Mosul, where a seven-member family along with 250 of their sheep were killed in an allied air raid Friday. Von Sponeck also visited a Mosul neighborhood where at least 14 houses were damaged and 20 people injured in another allied attack on Thursday. Mosul is 250 miles north of Baghdad. "I was deeply affected by what I saw - the total destruction of a shepherd's family and all their possessions," Von Sponeck told reporters Monday. "I am extremely sensitive to the effect of increasing airstrikes on the implementation of the humanitarian programs in Iraq." Von Sponeck noted that the United Nations should not "take lightly events like these, which affect human life." U.S. and British warplanes enforce two no-fly zones in Iraq. The northern zone guards rebel Iraqi Kurds from attacks by Iraqi armed forces. The southern zone bars Iraqi aircraft from attacking Muslim Shiite dissidents in the area. Iraq, which sees the air-exclusion zones as illegal, has been defying allied aircraft following a four-day bombing campaign by the United States and Britain in mid-December. Also Monday, the official Iraqi News Agency reported that a teenage shepherd was killed and two others wounded in separate cluster bomb explosions. The cluster bombs are thought to date back to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Arkan Jalil Aswad, 15, was killed in the Rumana area, close to the Syrian border, 187 miles west of Baghdad, the agency said. It did not say when the explosion took place. Abid Nadir and Hanan Bashir were severely wounded last week when two bombs exploded in the southern province Nasiriya, 230 miles south of Baghdad, the agency said. ******************** -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. 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