WASHINGTON, February 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S.-British war planes, patrolling the skies over northern Iraq, on Tuesday, February 25, shelled three Iraqi surface-to-surface missile systems in what appeared to be an attempt to lay the groundwork for a U.S. ground offensive from Turkey.

The U.S. European Command said the aircraft used precision-guided weapons to engage the missile launchers about six miles south of Mosul allegedly "in response to Iraqi threats to coalition forces monitoring Iraqi compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The coalition carried out today's strike after Iraqi forces moved the mobile surface-to-surface missile systems above the 36th parallel -- inside the northern no-fly zone -- and in range to threaten coalition forces," the command claimed in a statement.

The command said all coalition aircraft had left the zone unharmed, but there was no word if the launchers had been destroyed because damage assessment was still under way.

The attack appears to constitute an expansion of the U.S.-British coalition's stated mission, which up to now was limited to preventing the Iraqi air force from using the airspace over the Kurdish-populated region and suppressing Iraqi air defence facilities to ensure the safety of U.S. and British air crews.

The strike came after the United States and Turkey reached a tentative agreement on the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops in Turkey, which would be used as a launch pad for invading Iraq when U.S. President George W. Bush gives the war go-ahead.

The Turkish parliament still has to approve the deal, which also calls for sending Turkish forces into northern Iraq to prevent Kurds from forming an independent entity.

Since the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. and British have been enforcing so-called no-fly zones in northern and southern.

The two air-exclusion zones have not been mandated by the United Nations.

However the two countries' forces had not resorted to force in the northern region in more than three weeks.

The last time they struck Iraqi forces in the areas was on January 31, when coalition jets bombed Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery based about 10 miles east of Mosul.

On December 23, an Iraqi aircraft shot down an unmanned U.S. Predator reconnaissance drone over southern Iraq.

At least two other drones, which fly at relatively low speed, have been shot down over the “no-fly zones” in the past two years.

Washington insists Iraqi firing on coalition aircraft would put it in breach of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, under which arms inspections returned to Iraq last month, but has not been able to convince other U.N. members of this argument.