UK joins Baghdad strike

Royal Air Force planes joined U.S. jets on the mission

LONDON, England -- Britain joined the U.S. in an air raid on five Iraqi military sites near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

London and Washington said the strikes were authorised because of a significant rise in the number of missiles fired at allied planes patrolling the no-fly zone over southern Iraq.

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said it had been a "targeted and measured response to the dramatic increase in attacks on coalition aircraft in January."

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But other allies from the massive Gulf War coalition that lined up against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait have expressed anger at the strikes with France insisting on "explanations from the American administration."

It is the first time in two years that targets so close to Baghdad have been attacked.

Iraqi television said one woman was killed in the attack and showed pictures of other injured civilians, including children, in the hospital

UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon authorised British participation in the mission earlier this week after discussions with the Americans, the prime minister's spokesman said.

Hoon said: "(Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein should be clear that we will not tolerate continued attempts to endanger the lives of our aircrew.

"If he stops shooting at us there will be no need for the Royal Air Force to attack his air defences."

Blair, who was at his weekend retreat Chequers during the raids, was kept informed of the mission's progress.

British aircraft in the action included Tornado GR1 armed with Paveway precision guided laser bombs, air defence planes and tanker support. All returned safely to their bases in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Ministry of Defence said.

Initial reports were that they hit their targets successfully.

The action was the first military strike the new U.S. President George W. Bush has ordered, but at a news conference in Mexico, he described it as a "routine mission."

The U.S. military has called it "essentially a self-defence operation" with four targets south and one north of Baghdad being hit.

Following a meeting of Iraqi leaders chaired by Saddam Hussein a statement, carried by Iraqi television said Iraq would fight the U.S. and Israel in the air, on land and at sea.

Air-raid sirens began sounding in Baghdad shortly before 9 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) and explosions were heard as anti-aircraft weapons fired into the sky.

Both the U.S. and UK military said the raids were directed at Iraqi military targets but Iraq has in the past accused the allies of hitting civilian targets.

Iraq has said that some 300 people have been killed and more than 800 injured since it began challenging the no-fly patrols in December 1998.

British and U.S. aircrews regularly fly patrols over the no-fly areas established over Iraq at the end of the 1991 Gulf War to protect Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq and Kurds in the north from Saddam Hussein's forces.

Russia has led recent international criticism of no-fly zones, saying Iraq cannot be expected to let U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country while U.S. and British aircraft continue to strike Iraqi targets.

France, which helped establish the no-fly zones, stopped actively patrolling them in 1998 and has become an increasingly vocal critic, calling air raids "pointless and deadly."

On Friday the French Foreign Ministry said the air strikes "gave rise to questions."

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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