Five Iraqis, killed, 22 wounded in US-British strikes

An Iraqi military spokesman said on Monday that five Iraqi civilians were killed and another 22 wounded in US - British air raids, which were considered the most intensive since the bombardment of Basra on January 25, carried out against Iraqi civil and military positions.

The Iraqi spokesman added that British and American warplanes carried out 65 air strikes against Iraqi objectives and that Iraqi anti-aircraft missiles were fired against these planes.

The number of people killed as a result of the British-US air strikes since last Thursday increased to 11, according to Baghdad.

Meanwhile, a US military source said that four Iraqi military positions were hit on Monday in the air strikes carried out by British and US jets on southern Iraq. The same assertion was made by the British Defense Ministry, which claimed that the air strikes came following Iraq's violation of the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.