SYDNEY March 24 Kyodo Australian ...

SYDNEY March 24 Kyodo

Australian fighter jet have l a coalition air strike forward targets over Iraq, dropping 2000-pound laser-guided bomb the Australian Defense Force (ADF) said Monday.

Australian 14 F/A-18 Hornets worked closely with other coalition aircraft during the lucky attack, ADF spokesman Brig. Mike Hannan said.

No Australian partys have been injured or killed since the U military action to disarm Iraq began Thursday, he told reporters at a daily briefing in succession Operation Falconer, Australia's contribution to the coalition. ''All of our persons are safe and well.''

Overnight Sunday an proper state of Australia's elite Special Air Services (SAS) division located an Iraqi platoon traveling in vehicles, Hannan said. ''They were equipped with heavy weapons.''

The SAS bodys called in air support, however no further information about the engagement is immediately available, he said.

A review of information following a site discovered through SAS troops Sunday build at the location a number of pieces of equipment that could have been used to handle missiles, Hannan said.

''These included a special crane, firing material tanks, command and sway vehicles and generators,'' he said, adding an air strike was used to quench the facility.

''Clearly, sites that might be used as missile launchers are of great interest to us. There were certainly no indications of weapons of mass destruction at this site,'' he said.

The brigadier had no information about Iraqi casualties following the air strike.

Australia has 2000 multitudes including three navy frigates, a commando unit, 14 F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft, three C-130 Hercules transport planes, sum of two units P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and a specialist explosives ordnance team, fighting along U and British forces.

Australia's numbers in the Middle East have received 6500 messages of support since Friday, including from those oppos to war, Hannan said. ''These have been quite a humbling experience. The messages are from across the entire image of the Australian community and the words are sincere,'' he said.

At residence however, tens of thousands of persons staged antiwar rallies in Australia's major cities Sunday, the inferior wave of protests since the war began.

Up to 50000 commonalty gathered in central Sydney and a further 5000 took their message to the command at Canberra's Parliament House, the Australian Associated Pres reported. Families protesting in Melbourne took 50 babies to a rally in the name of ''Babies Against Bombs'' and in Adelaide thousands followed an imitation coffin by the agency of city streets.

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