Airstrikes reportedly wreck Iraqi surveillance site

CAIRO, Egypt -- A U.S.-British air raid in southern Iraq destroyed a military surveillance site that monitors American troops in the Persian Gulf, witnesses said.

The Iraqi military said the allied warplanes on Sunday bombed areas in Basra province, killing eight and wounding nine.

The U.S. Central Command in Florida said aircraft struck two air-defense radar systems in response to recent Iraqi acts against aircraft monitoring the southern no-fly zone.

The witnesses, Iraqis who said they were at the scene and were reached by telephone on Tuesday, said one of the installations hit was the headquarters of the army intelligence in southern Iraq that held a military surveillance unit.