¡¡¡¡BAGHDAD, Jan. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- US and British warplanes on Monday wounded six Iraqi civilians in their latest bombings in southern Iraq, an Iraqi Air Defence Command spokesman said.

¡¡¡¡The coalition warplanes targeted civil and service installationsin the southern province of Basra, about 480 km southeast of Baghdad, and six civilians were injured by the attack, the officialIraqi News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

¡¡¡¡While the US military said the bombing was actually aimed at destroying the anti-ship missile launcher which posed a threat to coalition maritime forces operating in the north Gulf.

¡¡¡¡Basra is located within the so-called southern no-fly zone, parallel to another one in northern Iraq.

¡¡¡¡US and British planes have been patrolling the two no-fly zones since the 1991 Gulf War with the claimed purpose of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from government persecution.

¡¡¡¡Iraq has not recognized the two no-fly zones, saying they were not mentioned in any relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Enditem