DATE=8/13/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ/RAID (L)
NUMBER=2-265409
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  U-S and British warplanes have again bombed 
targets in southern Iraq.  The Iraqi News Agency says 
the second night of attacks hit a train station, 
wounding an unspecified number of civilians.  A 
spokesman for the U-S military says the planes 
targeted Iraqi military installations, as we hear from 
Correspondent Scott Bobb in our Middle East Bureau in 
Cairo.

TEXT:  The Iraqi News Agency says the latest attack 
occurred late Saturday on the city of Samawah - 270-
kilometers south of Baghdad.  A statement called the 
attack criminal, and said it proved the hatred of the 
American administration and its British ally for the 
Iraqi people.

The official news agency said an attack late Friday 
hit residences and a warehouse in Samawah, killing two 
civilians and wounding 19 others.  A regional 
television station (Qatar's Jazeera) broadcast footage 
showing two injured men in an Iraqi hospital and 
scenes of people cleaning up debris in what appeared 
to be a bombed-out house and an office building.

A spokesman for the U-S military in Washington 
confirmed the attacks, but said they were against 
Iraqi air defense installations that had targeted 
allied planes in the southern no-fly zone.

The spokesman said allied forces try to avoid injury 
to civilians or damage to civilian facilities.

The Iraqi News Agency reports President Saddam Hussein 
met with the government's ruling councils to discuss 
the raids, which the agency said destroy Iraqi 
property with American backing and support from Saudi 
Arabia and Kuwait.

In recent weeks Iraq has increasingly criticized the 
air strikes and the two neighbors that allow U-S and 
British planes to operate from bases in their 
territories.  The Iraqi government has also sent a 
letter to the United Nations complaining about the 
attacks.

Allied warplanes have been patrolling no-fly zones in 
northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf 
war in an effort to protect dissident populations in 
these regions.  Iraq rejects the patrols as a
violation of its sovereignty.

            /// REST OPT ///

The latest wave of criticism began on the 10th 
anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that 
launched the Gulf war and brought crippling 
international sanctions against Iraq.
 
Observers in the region say it appears to be part of a 
renewed Iraqi effort to raise pressure to end the 
sanctions, and the allied flights over Iraq, prior to 
the opening of the U-N General Assembly next month.   
(SIGNED)

NEB/SB/ALW/RAE



13-Aug-2000 09:54 AM EDT (13-Aug-2000 1354 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.