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US and British warplanes Wednesday attacked an Iraqi surface-to-surface missile system that had been moved into striking range of US troops in Kuwait, US military officials said.

The missile base, located near Basra in southern Iraq, was struck for the first time Tuesday, but coalition warplanes returned to knock out its radar, said Navy Commander Dan Balice, a spokesman for the US Central Command.

"Today's target was against a portion of the system that was identified yesterday, but they didn't positively identify it as a legitimate target," he said.

"So rather than hitting it when they weren't sure, they went back to recheck what they had seen and then hit it today."

A missile carrier also was struck in Wednesday's raid, said Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman. The first raid struck the missile launcher, a command van and a support vehicle, he said.

A defense official, who asked not to be named, said it was an Abadil-100 ballistic missile system.

It was the first time such missile launchers have been targeted by US and British air forces.

A Central Command statement said the raid was carried out "after Iraqi forces moved the missile system into range of coalition forces in Kuwait."

Some 70,000 US troops are in Kuwait, many of them camped out in the desert along the Iraqi border for a possible war against Iraq.

Past air strikes have hit anti-ship missiles that threatened US warships in the Gulf and Iraqi anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. 

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