US bombs missile site

US warplanes dropped cluster and laser-guided bombs on an Iraqi missile site after Iraqi gunners fired two surface-to-air missiles, the defence department said, Reuter reports from Washington.

US Air Force pilots, on a routine patrol of an allied-enforced air exclusion zone over northern Iraq, spotted two missiles launched from a surface-to-air battery west of Mosul, the Pentagon said.

A total of six aircraft - two F- 4Gs, two F-16Cs and two F-15Es - were involved in the action, which appeared to have destroyed the missile site, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. All returned safely to base. In Baghdad, an official Iraqi spokesman said the US action had wounded a soldier and a civilian.