Iraq suffers more air strikes, decries Saudi, Kuwait roles

From staff and wire reports

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A second night of bombing by U.S. and British planes injured a number of people and damaged a railway station and several homes, the Iraqi News Agency reported Sunday.

Officials at the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida confirmed that the strikes had occurred, but said they had targeted anti-aircraft artillery.

Spokesman Lt. Col. Rick Thomas said the bombing was in response to Iraq's attacks against allied forces enforcing the so-called southern no-fly zone.

Baghdad warned last year that it would shoot at U.S. and British planes, which it says are illegally occupying its airspace.

MESSAGE BOARD The situation in Iraq    VIDEO CNN's Jane Arraf reports on the latest air raid on Iraqi and its aftermath Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

On Sunday, Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh said Saudi Arabia and Kuwait pose a direct threat to Iraq because they have been allowing U.S. and British war planes to launch strikes from their territory.

The minister told the Qatari satellite television station al-Jazeera that President Saddam Hussein was not menacing the two countries when he criticized them in a recent speech for allowing Western planes to launch attacks on Iraq.

"The direct, actual threat is what Saudi Arabia and Kuwait do every day by killing our citizens," said Saleh.

Raids concentrate on Samawa

Baghdad said at least two people died and more than 19 were wounded in Friday night's air strikes which, like Saturday night's, concentrate on the outskirts of Samawa, about 280 kilometers (175 miles) south of Baghdad.

The Iraqi government said Friday's bombs hit a warehouse used for food and building materials imported under the U.N.-approved oil-for-food program.

"I saw people running but didn't know what was happening, and then this missile landed near me," said construction worker Uday Majeed, his face peppered with lacerations and one eye swollen shut.

Thomas said U.S. and British forces do not try to target civilians or Iraqi infrastructure.

A Pentagon statement on the Friday bombing did not give an assessment of damage, but said Western forces try to use precision weapons to spare civilian targets.

A Reuters photographer said there were no Iraqi military units in the area.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Iraq says latest Western airstrikes kill 7
April 30, 1999
U.S. planes bomb targets in northern Iraq
March 1, 1999

United States Central Command
MacDill AFB
The Pentagon
U.S. Department of State: Saddam Hussein's Iraq

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