BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. and British airstrikes on Iraq amount to an undeclared war against the country, the Iraqi government said in a protest to the United Nations on Sunday. (Read photo caption below).
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, acting Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz asked him to take measures ``to put a stop to these illegal aggressions and to hold the countries responsible for their violations'' of Iraqi airspace, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
U.S. and British warplanes patrol no-flight zones over northern and southern Iraq. The Baghdad government doesn't recognize the zones and its artillery and radar have been challenging the planes since late 1998, resulting in numerous airstrikes that have damaged military and civil structures and killed civilians.
The zones were set up in 1991-92 to protect Kurdish rebels in the north and Shiite rebels in the south from government forces.
In his letter, Aziz also complained that the U.N. observers on the Iraq-Kuwait border had failed to report the allied flight incursions to the U.N. Security Council.
The U.S. and British air forces have denied targeting nonmilitary buildings and civilians in Iraq. They say they strike Iraqi air defense systems to protect their pilots.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Iraq said on June 20, 2001 on 23 people died and 11 were wounded when Western warplanes targeted a playing field in a northern Iraqi town, but Britain and the United States denied any attack. (Reuters Graphic)