Iraq opens fire on allied aircraft

An Iraqi spokesman said Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery opened fire yesterday evening on British and American jets that were conducting patrols above the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.

The Iraqi spokesman said that ground anti-aircraft guns confronted the raiding jets and forced them to flee.

On the other hand, exchanges of bodies of Iraqi and Iranian soldiers who were killed during the war between the two countries in 1980 - 1988 are starting today.

Iranian sources said that the exchange of bodies will take place in the El-Shalagma area, near Basra, and it will include transporting the bodies of 221 Iraqi soldiers and 166 Iranian soldiers.

Iran and Iraq started normalization of relations last year through exchanging economic and political delegations, but this process works slowly and clashes with the problems of the missing and prisoners from the two sides.