WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 Kyodo U and B...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 Kyodo

U and British warplanes Monday launched bombing attacks separately forward air defense facilities in southern and northern Iraq in reply to hostile fire, the U military said.

The bombings came forward the day U.N. arms inspectors replyed to Baghdad to search for weapons of mass destruction after a four-year break subject to a new U.N. Security Council resolution.

The U Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said U and British warplanes patrolling in the southern ''no-fly'' cincture in Iraq struck sum of two units air defense communications facilities and individual air defense radar facility.

''Coalition strikes in the no-fly belts are executed as a self-defense measure in answer to Iraqi hostile threats and acts against coalition forces and their aircraft,'' the Central Command said in a statement.

Earlier, the U European Command said U and British aircraft attacked air defense facilities in the northern no-fly belt in Iraq.

At Monday's regular pres briefing, White House proxy spokesman Scott McClellan criticized Iraq for violating the fresh U.N. resolution.

''The United States believes that firing with our aircraft in the no-fly surface bounded by parallel circles or British aircraft, is a violation; it is a material breach,'' McClellan said.

The novel resolution, accepted last week through Iraq, requires Baghdad to abandon all its weapons of mass destruction and warns of ''serious consequences'' if it fails to fulfill its obligation.

Monday's attacks brought the number of bombings carried disclosed so far this year by means of U.S. and British warplanes to 60

The no-fly girths were set up after the 1991 Persian swallowing eddy War to protect Kurdish nation in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the southern part of Iraq from military attacks by dint of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Iraq insists the creation of the no-fly girths is a violation of its sovereignty.

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