Anti-aircraft fire Wednesday over Baghdad
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February 24, 1999
Web posted at: 8:03 p.m. EST (0103 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. warplanes, loaded with new "smart" weapons, Wednesday struck Iraqi targets on the outskirts of Baghdad after Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery fired on them, a U.S. military official told CNN.

The attack was further north and closer to the capital than any strikes in the southern no-fly zone since December.

U.S. Air Force F-15Es fired video-guided AGM-130 missiles, which crew members steer to their targets by a video link. U.S. Navy F/A-18s dropped AGM-154 J-SOWs (Joint Stand Off Weapons), which are guided with the aid of global positioning satellites.

Both weapons can be fired from more than 40 miles away and keep U.S. pilots out of range of Iraqi air defenses.

AGM-154 J-SOWS drop 145 bomblets over an area big as a football field

The targets were Iraqi surface-to-air missile batteries near the capital, the military source said.

"None of the targets are in Baghdad," he said.

In the Iraqi capital, anti-aircraft guns opened fire after an air-raid siren wailed across the city, witnesses said.

The official Iraqi News Agency reported that Iraqi defense officials said 22 formations of planes were sighted flying toward Baghdad from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait at 6:12 p.m. Wednesday (10:12 a.m. EST) and that the Iraqi defense system responded with anti-aircraft fire.

The Iraqi agency reported that a civilian site on the outskirts of Baghdad was bombed and that an unspecified number of people were killed or injured.

The United States and Britain patrol a no-fly zone over southern Iraq that extends to the outer suburbs of Baghdad.

The zone was established in 1992 to protect rebels from air attacks by Iraqi government forces.

Correspondents Rula Amin and Jamie McIntyre and National Security Producer Chris Plante contributed to this report.

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